Byouki
by ArgentumVulpes
Summary: Team Kakashi is on a mission and things don't go so well for Naruto. He doesn't know that it's only about to get worse when Kyuubi starts to change his body... ready to take over. Yaoi. SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1: 22nd of June

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. You'll have to go to Masashi Kishimoto ;)

* * *

**Byouki**

In this story Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke are 18 years. Sasuke came back after Naruto defeated Pain. He was already on his way to Konoha in the manga to kill the elders; instead he really wanted to return after killing Itachi and being told the truth by Madara.

He had to stay in jail for half a year, was on probation for the next four months and couldn't do any C or higher ranked missions for the year after that. Since two months of the beginning of this story he can do higher ranked missions.

He had to attend three hearings since he came back, one immediately after he came back, the second after the half year jail period and the third after the probation.

* * *

**Chapter 1: 22nd of June**

Naruto felt the rush that a battle brings.

He proficiently dodged a few stray shuriken, which were originally not aimed for him, and a blow to the head. He put his hands together while making eye contact with Sakura; she nodded back.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu."

Immediately two clones appeared next to him. They both charged directly at the female Kumo shinobi he was fighting. Naruto himself turned around; right on time to see Sakura punch a ninja with an eye patch, in the gut. He was punched straight toward Naruto.

Naruto grabbed the man's arm and swung him 270 degrees, directly into the woman that his clones had kicked toward him. They made a loud 'thud' sound and the Kumo pair fell to the ground, unconscious.

One of his clones stayed behind to tie the ninja's together. His other clone came to him and together with Sakura they charged in the direction where Sasuke and Kakashi were fighting.

Sasuke was fighting a ninja with long dark brown hair tied up in a braid, near a cliff at the end of the forest where they were in. Kakashi was about 100 meters ahead in said forest, jumping from tree to tree while using all kinds of jutsus on the two kunoichi he was fighting.

Sasuke had just finished the hand seals to perform a Katon jutsu to roast the Kumo ninja in front of him, but the brown haired ninja had his counter ready and used a water jutsu to cool the fire down. Right then Sakura tried to slam her fist into the ninja, who dodged it. Instead she hit the tree behind him that split in two along the length.

While Sasuke and Sakura, now along with the Naruto clone, were fighting near the cliff, the real Naruto ran straight past Sasuke towards Kakashi to help him.

He could hear his clone and Sakura fighting hand-to-hand with the ninja, while a chirping sound from Sasuke came. Naruto made yet another Bunshin that made a Rasengan in his hand, then jumped in front of him to take a jutsu directed at him and poof-ed out of existence.

Naruto aimed the Rasengan at the short spiked, purple-haired kunoichi's chest. She could step aside just in time and instead place her right hand on his forehead as her left hand made special one handed signs.

"Secret art of the Ritangatsu," she yelled.

Naruto tried to step back but was now being held tightly at his arms from behind. The other black haired kunoichi that had been fighting Kakashi, held him in place.

"What the-," was as far as he could get when a horrible pain shot through his head. His knees gave out on him, but he was still being held by the black haired kunoichi from behind and the purple haired kunoichi still held her hand against his head.

At that moment, while Naruto screamed, a second scream could be heard.

A hand came chirping through the chest of the purple haired kunoichi in front of him. Kakashi had used his electric jutsu, the Raikiri. The hand of the purple haired kunoichi slipped off Naruto's head.

The kunoichi that held Naruto let him drop to the ground. The moment he hit the ground he grasped his head with his hands and bent over in pain.

The Kumo nin grasped a few kunai and threw them at Kakashi, who held the body of the now dying kunoichi as a shield in front of him to intercept the kunai. He wanted to pull his hand out of the dying kunoichi's chest when said kunoichi found her last bit of strength and held his wrist tight.

"Now, Kohako!" she spluttered through the blood coming from her mouth.

Kohako didn't need telling twice and pulled a katana from her belt, pointing it directly at Kakashi's heart and sprinted forward.

A scream filled the air yet again, along with a clash of katanas clinging against each other. Sasuke had intercepted the katana of Kohako with his own. The scream that still echoed through the air had belonged to Naruto.

The purple haired kunoichi dropped her hands. A 'shlrp' was heard when Kakashi freed himself and let the kunoichi drop to the ground next to Naruto. Looking at Sasuke and seeing he could handle himself, the copy ninja's gaze turned back to Naruto.

Sakura was already at his side, her hands glowing pink with chakra. Trying to calm the screaming Naruto, she leaned over to him, but he jerked away from her.

He was still gripping his head, but when she laid her hand softly on his shoulder he stopped screaming and instead began to cry. Tears rolled over his whiskered cheeks. Kakashi came behind Naruto and held him still so Sakura could begin her healing.

"Listen, Naruto, everything is going to be all right," she said as she held his head in her warm glowing hands. He whimpered a little and mumbled something inaudible but at the same time relaxed and stopped struggling.

Sasuke came walking back as he wiped some blood from his katana and put it back in its sheathe.

"Good work, Sasuke," Kakashi said, letting go of Naruto.

Sasuke looked from Naruto to Sakura, who had a look of worry on her face. Naruto had stopped crying and whimpering, but was still looking like he was in pain.

"What is wrong with him?" Sasuke asked, looking at Sakura with a straight face. But Sakura knew better; he was worried.

"I'm not sure." She put her hands down. "I think that technique she used on him was some sort of mind erasing jutsu." She looked up at them.

"How bad is it?" Kakashi asked, worry lining his voice.

"I don't think the jutsu was completely successful, but he still needs medical care. I can't do too much about this, except for taking most of the pain away. " She now directed herself to Naruto. She gripped his arms and he opened his eyes, though he did not look directly at her. "Naruto, can you hear me? Do you know where you are?"

"Wh-what… n… nhhh," was al that came from him as he closed his eyes again. Sasuke lowered himself on his hunches and spoke with a soft voice to Naruto.

"Oi, dobe… Naruto, look at me." Those last few calm words worked like magic. Naruto looked him directly in the eye.

"Sa-Sasuke?"

Sasuke saw that he looked very pale, still some wet tears on his face. "Naruto, do you know where you are?" he asked, looking at those sapphire blue eyes.

"I'm… I…," he took a deep breath and started again, "I… I don't feel so good." And he doubled over to vomit right in between Sasuke and Sakura, who both backed away a bit.

Sakura began to stroke his back.

Finally Naruto came back up again, still some saliva hanging from his mouth. Wiping it away, he breathed a little heavier.

"There, there," Sakura said, while patting his back, "Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah," was the soft reply of the other.

After sitting like that for about three minutes, Naruto tried to stand up, but Sasuke pushed him down again.

"We gotta go… the… the mission," Naruto said. "I'm fine" he added, but it didn't sound as convincing as he had wanted it to, especially not with the pain written on his face.

"No, you're not," Sasuke shot back.

"Okay, Naruto, you and Sakura head back to Konoha," Kakashi finally said, "Sasuke and I will finish the mission and bring those shinobis to the client. We will catch up to you later on."

Their mission had been to bring back the very Kumo shinobi they had been fighting; dead or alive.

"But-"

"No, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei is right," Sakura cut him off. "We have to go back. You were already sick before we got here, I'm still mad you tried to hide it, and now this." She closed her eyes for a second. "You need medical care. I can't do much more for you and I'm still not sure what that woman did or tried to do to you."

"Bu… o-okay."

They all looked perplexed. Did he just agree so easily? Sakura's eyebrows shot up, Kakashi's eyes widened a bit and Sasuke said, "She really must have messed up your head."

"Hmpf."

"Okay. Let's go, Sasuke." Kakashi started walking towards the bodies. He turned around and added, "Naruto… listen to what Sakura says, ne?" His eyes were upside down like half moon crescents as he turned again to walk further.

Sasuke looked at Naruto one more time and said, "Don't do anything stupid… Naruto," which actually meant _'be careful'_.

"I never do…"

Everybody was quiet, thinking something along the lines of _'yeah, right'_.

"Come on, Naruto, carefully." Sakura put an arm around him for support and helped him up. Naruto groaned a little and his face crunched up in pain.

"See you later."

"Ja na."

-x-

"How is he?" Kakashi asked.

Kakashi and Sasuke had finished the mission and had caught up with Sakura and Naruto close to Konoha. Naruto lay resting against a tree. The rest of team 7 stood a little further away, watching him.

"He says he's fine, but I can see he is in pain and he really needs a check-up. I know he sometimes can say weird things normally, but now he really says weird things every now and then. Mixing words up and saying the wrong words, while trying to say the right things." She looked worriedly at Naruto, who was mumbling in his sleep, "Ra-rame... n…"

"Alright, when he wakes up, we go."

"Did the mission go well?" Sakura asked, sitting on the ground. She looked over to Sasuke, who was walking toward Naruto.

"The client, Momushi-san, was very delighted when we arrived. He even let his many women-"

"Sasu… ke?" Naruto blinked a few times and smiled.

"What are you smiling about, dobe? You look like something the cat dragged in."

"A _'hello, how are you?'_ would have sufficed, you know."

And at those words Sasuke gave Naruto one of his rare smiles. Naruto snorted.

That had apparently been a mistake, for his nose began to bleed viciously. Sasuke leaned over to him and gripped his nose to stop the bleeding. He was getting a little pale again, Sasuke noticed.

"I'm getting dizzy," Naruto stated, "But if you don't pinch my nose so soft, it would feel worse."

"What?"

"He is mixing up words again." Sakura came hurrying toward them.

"No, I am."

Sakura put her hand on the bridge of his nose and poured a bit of chakra into it. After a moment she let his nose go. "Better?"

"Yeah," came the soft reply, "Danks." Sasuke was still holding his nose closed.

Taking the tissue Sakura was offering he wiped the blood from his face. Slowly some colour came back into his face.

"Come on, we have to go. I'll carry you."

"Eh?" Naruto was a little surprised, looking up at Sasuke, but nonetheless let Sasuke help him up on his feet and climbed up Sasuke's back.

"Let's go," Sasuke said to the others when he was sure the blond was safely settled on his back.

-x-X-x-

"Itai."

"Then don't struggle!"

"But it's freezing in here and your creepy, cold instruments aren't helping!"

Tsunade just finished putting some small stethoscope-like devices on Naruto's forehead and was now removing them. Tsunade had been checking Naruto's head until now. He sat in his shirt and pants on top of an observation table. Sakura stood next to him on his other side, redrawing the needle from a syringe, now filled with blood.

"Just sit still."

"Hmpf," Naruto frowned.

Tsunade finished collecting the stethoscope-like devices and grasped a small light from the table next to her, which was filled with instruments from different kind of sizes and sorts. She held it in front of his eyes and looked how his pupils dilated.

"Ehn, do you need to do that? It's so light." Naruto tried to close his eyes.

"No kidding. Perhaps that's because it _is_ a light," Sakura said getting the light from Tsunade and laying it back on the table. Naruto grumbled.

Tsunade now got some cards from a drawer and held one in front of him.

"What colour do you see on this card?" she asked very seriously.

"What?" Naruto pulled up an eyebrow, like she was crazy; he wasn't a toddler.

"What colour, Naruto?" she said a little harsher.

"Blue," it was green.

Tsunade held another one up, it was red with green.

"Red and green."

She held the next card up. This card had pictures of the four seasons on it.

Naruto signed. "Spring, summer, fall and winter," he told her, looking more bored by the second.

Next was a card with animals: a rooster, a cow, a spider and a cat.

"Rooster, thing that stands in the meadow, a spider and… eto… pass?"

"You can't pass. It's not a game," Sakura said.

"Hmm," he thought for a while, putting his hand under his chin, "then I… I can't remember."

"Okay, I want to do one more test. Tell me what happened on this last mission," Tsunade said. "What do you remember?"

"Oh, okay. You gave us a B-ranked mission to get…" he tried counting in his head the number of ninja, failed, and then tried with his fingers. That didn't seem to work either so he decided to just say, "a couple of Kumo ninja's, for a guy named Muchi-or-something. We searched in the area indicated in the mission briefing for a couple of days- "

"How many?"

"How should I know?... Wait, how many what?"

"Days, how many days did you search for the nukenins?"

"Two days, then the next day we found them… or they found us… we kind of found each other, more or less. Anyway, we got in a fight, Sakura-chan and I fought a man and a woman, teme was fighting a ninja with a braid; I'm still not sure if it was a man or a woman. And Kakashi-sensei was fighting as well."

Sakura pulled one eyebrow up _'fighting as well'_.

"Sakura-chan and I handled the men we were fighting and we went to Sasuke. Sakura-chan helped him and I went to Kakashi-sensei. After that, all I remember is pain and… I'm not sure, but there was something else."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Next I remember Sasuke and after that Sakura-chan helped me walk back home. It's a bit hazy after the pain part 'till Sasuke carried me back," he smiled a bit at that, looking over to Sasuke, who had been standing 3 meters away all the time.

"Okay, that's good. What was that other feeling you felt apart from the pain?"

"I'm not sure. It's hard to describe."

"Think about it for a while."

Naruto went silent and after some time he closed his eyes. He tried to recall everything he had felt, but it was all too much of a jumble, so he tried to concentrate on a separate feeling.

Finally after a few minutes he said, "It felt like… red." He opened his eyes as if what he had said explained everything, which it apparently did to him.

"So?" Sasuke asked, "What does that mean."

"Kyuubi," Naruto said simply.

"What does he have to do with this?" Tsunade asked.

"I don't know," Naruto said shrugging, like she had just asked him to explain what a star exactly is. Tsunade considered this for a moment.

"That was that. I can't say for certain what's wrong with you, so I want you to make an appointment with Inoichi-san, just to be sure," Tsunade finally said, not giving anything away, "Alright, now pull out your shirt and lay back."

"What? Didn't I already tell you that it's cold in here, Tsunade no baa-chan?"

"Just do it, Naruto."

And so he complied. The moment he pulled up his shirt, Sakura gasped.

The seal was clearly visible, black as the night on his tan skin.

"That's odd," Tsunade said, also looking at it.

Once he had pulled out his shirt and had thrown it on the ground, Naruto looked down as well, already knowing what they had been talking about.

"How long has it been visible?" Tsunade asked, now examining the swirly patterns on his stomach.

"Eto... I think I might have seen it… erhm… yetrdj." He added the last part more in a mumble than in actual words.

"What was that?"

"Yesterday," he said a little bit louder this time, barely making a sound.

"What? And you didn't say anything?" Tsunade asked angry, while at the same time sounding a bit worried. She pushed him down, so he was lying on the table now.

"I don't know; the mission and everything... Besides it's not like it hasn't happened before." He suddenly realized what he had said. Trying to correct his mistake, he added quickly an "_I mean-"_, but it was too late.

"You mean this happened before? Since when?"

Naruto shrunk a little. "I think around the time I began feeling ill every now and then." He shrugged slowly.

"You mean this is already going on for two weeks now?" Sasuke suddenly joined in the conversation. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want you-"

"Two weeks already? And you didn't say anything?" Tsunade was getting furious.

"Well… more like six weeks now," Naruto said very quietly, hoping they wouldn't hear, but just in case he already shrunk.

"WHAT?" three voices said in unison.

"Alright, this is enough. Kakashi," Kakashi stood up from the chair in the corner he had been occupying, very silently, until now, "come over here and take a look. I want your opinion on this." Tsunade took a step backwards, having finished her examination on the seal.

Naruto still lay on his back on the observation table, shivering a bit. First Kakashi studied the seal only by looking. His face didn't conceal anything. Naruto was getting a little bit nervous and very irritated about the fact that no one was turning the heater on.

Then Kakashi laid his fingertips on the seal. At the moment he touched Naruto the blond yelped a bit, not having expected the cold fingertips on his stomach.

Kakashi looked up for a moment and then back at the seal, now pouring some of his own chakra through it.

"I won't deny that I'm no expert on this kind of seal, but for as far as I remember, it looks a bit different; like it has changed." He looked from Naruto, who now tried to see the seal again for himself, to Tsunade.

"Yes, I had the same impression. Naruto?" They both looked to Naruto, who looked from Tsunade to Kakashi to Tsunade again as he sat upright.

"Well, I don't know." They looked at him a bit surprised. "It's not like I made a study of the damn thing," and at that he crossed his arms.

Sasuke stepped forward to look at it as well. "It looks like the line of the swirl has gotten thicker and the side markings are less visible than before."

"How do _you_ know?" Sakura asked, knowing she had never seen the seal before. When had he? But Sasuke just remained silent.

Sakura looked over to Naruto. Apparently he hadn't heard her because he was staring at his seal again, trying to confirm for himself what Sasuke had said.

"All right, that was it. I will inform Inoichi-san about this and get back to you about the date of the examination," the blonde woman said and walked out of the examination room.

While Naruto was pulling his shirt back on and Sakura was cleaning the instruments, Tsunade waited for Kakashi and Sasuke to step out of the room as well.

"Things don't seem good for him. Although from what Sakura told me about the tests she did before, his head is getting better. His 'mis-sayings' are getting lesser. It might be the influence of the fox, but I still want Inoichi-san to find out what that woman did to him, or tried to do. One of you should be present with him, just to be sure. You know how Naruto can get over such things."

"I'll go with him," Sasuke offered.

"Good. I don't like what is going on with the seal at all, but right now we can't do too much about it. I need to do some research about this. That won't be easy. Kakashi, you should come with me and tell me what you know about it."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi turned back to Sasuke. "Well then, don't go making things worse than they are for Naruto in the time you are alone." He grinned at Sasuke, who had a foul look on his face, and walked away with the Godaime Hokage.

Sasuke was still scowling when Naruto appeared next to him.

"Shall we go to Ichiraku ramen? I'm hungry… and cold." He smiled at Sasuke. Sasuke nodded.

"Sakura-chan are you coming as well?"

"No, I need to clean this up and go home. I promised my mom to help her with some things when I would come back from this mission."

"Okay, see you later." Naruto waved at Sakura, who waved back, and turned around to walk away. Sasuke came walking next to him and put an arm around his waist.

"You really are cold."

"I told you so."

And they took off, leaving the hospital.


	2. Chapter 2: 23rd of June

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.

I'm so glad for getting your reactions :D Thanks!

-oXo-

**Chapter 2: 23****rd**** of June**

Naruto sat a little bit nervously on a chair in the middle of a small room without windows. Sasuke stood next to the door, looking like he had an escape plan in mind. Inoichi was standing behind Naruto, explaining the procedure.

Naruto wasn't sure if he understood everything, so he looked to the right of Inoichi where Tsunade stood.

"Don't worry Naruto. You won't feel any discomfort at all," Inoichi finally said, "Just try to relax."

"Aa," he said to show he understood, trying to sound like he wasn't nervous.

"Alright, Naruto, clear your mind; try not to think about anything."

"That should be easy for you."

"Shut up, teme."

Sasuke's taunt might have unsettled a normal person. To Naruto it had the opposite effect. He was reminded that Sasuke was there with him; it comforted him.

"Good. Now imagine the battle before your blackout," Inoichi said as he placed his fingertips of his index and middle finger from both hands on Naruto's temples, "I will do the rest."

_Inoichi had made contact with Naruto's mind. He could see the scene Naruto had been thinking about. _

_This worked like a guideline for Inoichi to get to the important memories. Like Naruto had already opened a drawer just a little bit, so Inoichi could see where he had been looking last and go over there himself. _

_Being in Naruto's mind, watching his memories, was like watching an old television set to him. The colours were just a bit off, somewhat more sepia-toned. _

_He could see how Naruto ran past Sasuke towards Kakashi. He made a clone, a Rasengan and just barely missed the woman's ear. She grasped his head and then the images began to flicker, like a broken television set. _

_Inoichi however could still follow things and through the chakra-link the woman tried to make with Naruto, he could read just a bit of the woman's intensions. Together with her hand seals and position of the hands he now knew what she had tried to do. And it would have worked, if not…_

_Inoichi saw in the image a flicker of red; the nine-tailed fox was interfering with the process of the kunoichi's jutsu, just as Kakashi's hand that stuck through her chest. _

_As this happened the red feeling began to 'look' too real. It felt real, it was burning. The evil chakra was too much to handle. It felt heavy and thick and... demonic._

Inoichi let go of Naruto with a yelp. It felt like his fingertips had burned.

Naruto bent over while a red fox shroud was forming around him.

Tsunade and Sasuke immediately came into action. Sasuke's eyes were blood red from the Sharingan that spun around in them. The moment Naruto went upright again the raven entered Naruto's mindscape to help him calm down.

Tsunade activated a seal on the chair, which made Naruto unable to move from it. After that she turned to Inoichi to threat his hands.

"Sasuke and Naruto will handle this," she told Inoichi, who had stepped backwards from Naruto. "So in the mean time you can tell me what you have seen."

_Sasuke had been in Naruto's mindscape one time before and knew where to find him. Naruto was in front of the huge cage of the fox. Red chakra had leaked from the cage onto the watery floor and was now strangely strangling Naruto in his grasp. Naruto was resisting, but failing to free himself. _

_Sasuke stepped toward Naruto but didn't come to close._

"_Naruto, don't let him take control. Whatever he says, don't trust him."_

"_I… know, but I can't concentrate. My head hurts too much." _

_Sasuke tried one more time. "Naruto, concentrating was never really your thing, but I know you can do it now."_

"_Okay… that wasn't really helping, but it would be nice if you could lend me a hand." Naruto glared a bit at him. He knew Sasuke had once just touched the fox's nose and dissolved the whole chakra from his system for quite a while. _

_Sasuke walked towards Naruto_, _he touched the red chakra and quickly pulled back. _

"_Concentrate!" Sasuke said again._

_Naruto grumbled, but then closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. The red chakra was loosening around him, like it was being pushed back a little, but it was far enough for Sasuke. Again Sasuke touched the chakra and this time it disappeared. _

Sasuke blinked and saw Naruto opening his eyes. The fox's chakra was gone. Naruto panted a little and had a nosebleed.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, I feel fine." He tried to move, but was still bound by the seal Tsunade had put on the chair. "What the…? I can't move."

"I put a seal on the chair so you couldn't move. In case things turned… interesting. Just precaution," Tsunade said, now healing his nose. "From what Inoichi told me you are going to be fine. I want you to take some medicine. It will take care of that jutsu's side effects." She let go of his nose.

"Come with me to my office." She released the seal, thanked Inoichi for his work and walked away.

"She could have removed the seal before she told me all that and began healing my nose."

"I would have waited with it as well."

"That could be, but I'm not sure your motives are the same as Tsunade no baa-chan's."

Sasuke smirked.

At this Inoichi began to feel a little uncomfortable, so he greeted them and left as well.

"Let's go, before the Hokage gives you another type of brain damage."

"You're so kind when you are concerned about me." Naruto glared at the other.

Sasuke turned away and began walking to the door. "I know."

Naruto snorted.

"You shouldn't snort. You'll get another nosebleed."

"Yeah, I think I already have."

Sasuke looked back to Naruto, who was again holding his nose against the bleeding. He sighed.

-x-

When they arrived at the Hokage's office, Naruto still holding his nose, Tsunade already sat behind her desk.

"That took you long enough…" Tsunade looked up from her desk to them. "Do you have another nosebleed? What happened?" Tsunade looked from Naruto to Sasuke. "Wait, never mind, I don't need to know."

"What? No, it-" Naruto began, turning slightly red in the face.

"Shizune is getting your medicine. Just sit down for a minute." Tsunade grinned; she liked to tease Naruto with his relation with Sasuke.

They both sat down. Sasuke looked to Naruto. Naruto looked back. Sasuke's stare became a bit more intense.

"What?"

"You don't want to know?"

"Know what?"

Sasuke sighed and looked over to Tsunade, who had been watching them. He looked Tsunade in the eyes. "Is he really going to be okay when he will take the medicine?"

"Yes. That Kumo woman tried to erase Naruto's mind, but Kakashi and the Kyuubi interfered. She could not finish the jutsu and apparently the fox has been healing you ever since. Otherwise you would still be saying nonsense." She looked from Sasuke to Naruto.

"You are very lucky for that. I guess the fox is good for something after all. If he had not protected you, you would have been a vegetable." Tsunade ended very seriously.

"Wow, lucky me," Naruto said mockingly.

"I'm serious, gaki." She took a deep breath.

"Yeah, yeah."

"The medicine Shizune is getting for you will help repair the damage more precisely and faster. It's nothing serious," she added the last part, when Sasuke began staring at her.

Shizune chose that moment to enter the room. "Hello Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. Here is the medicine Tsunade-sama."

"Now Naruto, you have to take this medicine three times a day-"

"Eh?"

"And Sasuke I see it to _you_ that he takes it." She gave the box with pills to Sasuke.

"Hn."

"Good. Well, that was it for today. I want to see you for a check-up in five days. After that I can say what we will do about the seal. Dismissed."

They stood up and left the office. Shizune immediately gave Tsunade some papers to sign. "Hnnn," she groaned.

"Well that wasn't so bad." Naruto looked over to Sasuke.

"Hn."

-oXo-

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it?


	3. Chapter 3: 27th of June

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 3: 27****th**** June**

Team 7 was sitting around a tree on their usual training ground. They were having lunch.

"Hmm, Sasuke, I didn't know veggies could taste so good. You cook well, but you can leave out the tomatoes next time." Sasuke leaned over and picked the tomato from Naruto's bento box.

"Aren't you two the cutest couple of Ko-"

"Zip it, Kakashi."

"You just hurt my feelings, Sasuke."

"Hn."

"So, what were you guys doing and when can I join in?" Naruto asked.

"We were sparring and no, you can't join. You are supposed to rest for the next two days," Sakura answered.

"But it takes so long. It's boring being alone at home and five days to rest is way too much. I promise to take it easy. Please?"

"No."

"But-"

"No means _no_, Naruto!"

A sigh came from Naruto. "Damn. At least let me watch."

"I think that's alright." Sakura said slowly. She closed her bento box and laid it aside. She stood up and started doing some stretches.

"You finished?" she asked Sasuke after a while, stretching her fingers, which made a crunching noise.

Sasuke laid his now empty lunch box away and walked up the training ground. Sasuke and Sakura began sparring.

Naruto and Kakashi watched them fight for over two and a half hours, in which the score had become 3-2 for Sasuke.

Sasuke walked over to Naruto and sat beside him. The blond looked at the raven. He was sweaty and was panting slightly. Sasuke looked back to Naruto.

"What."

"_What_ what?" Naruto looked innocently.

Sasuke sighed and looked back forward. Naruto shrugged. "So now what?"

"You should go home and rest."

"Then what did I do the last two hours and a half?"

"…" Apparently Sakura couldn't come up with an answer to that.

"So? Anybody hungry?" he asked hopefully.

"_No_ Ichiraku ramen."

"What? Why not?"

"Because we already had yesterday," said Sasuke.

"And the day before," Sakura added.

"So?"

"Never mind. I've got to go. I have a hospital shift at 19:00." The pinkette turned around and left. "Bye."

"Hmmm, I still wonder what we will have for dinner."

Kakashi and Sasuke looked over to Naruto, saying nothing.

"Well, I better go too and leave this dilemma to you guys. Ja mata." And Kakashi disappeared as well.

"You know, if you weren't so sweaty, we could go eat something on our way home." Naruto stuck out his tong.

"Usuratonkachi."

"Teme."

-x-X-x-

Sasuke and Naruto were in Sasuke's apartment. Naruto was just taking his turn to shower as Sasuke was drying himself off.

"Oi, teme, did you just empty the shampoo?" it sounded from the shower.

Sasuke dropped his towel, walked over to a drawer and took out a new bottle of shampoo. He pushed the shower curtain a little out of the way and handed the bottle to Naruto.

"Thanks, teme." Naruto took the bottle.

Sasuke kept the curtain open, admiring the blond. His abdomen was firm and there was no seal visible.

Sasuke decided that he needed to touch it. So he stepped into the shower again and moved his hands over Naruto's stomach. It was smooth; unlike his own skin Naruto had no scars on it.

"Hey," Naruto almost dropped the bottle at Sasuke's touch. Instead Sasuke took it, put some shampoo on his hands and began to massage it into Naruto's hair.

"Hmmm, that feels good," Naruto said dreamily.

After Sasuke was done he lowered his soapy hands down from Naruto's shoulders to his chest. Hugging Naruto from behind, he laid his head in the blonds' neck. Naruto placed his hands on top of Sasuke's and rested his head on the raven's hair. They stood like this for a while.

Then the blond detached himself and started to wash his hair. Sasuke helped him.

Now there were four hands on his head. It was getting too crowded to Naruto's liking, so instead he turned around, lowered his hands to Sasuke's chest and let his hands slowly travel over his torso to his abdomen. There were some small scars here and there, but nothing serious. Sasuke's skin was a lighter tint than his, so the scars didn't really stuck out anyway, even the somewhat bigger ones.

At that moment Sasuke finished washing the soap out of Naruto's hair.

They stood there, staring at each other, while the water droplets from the shower made it look like they were crying.

Naruto grinned and let go.

"So what are we going to eat?"

The moment was gone and Sasuke sighed. "Something with vegetables. How about carrots?" he asked.

Naruto made a face.

"But they are orange," Sasuke tried.

"What is that for a kind of reasoning?" Naruto looked at Sasuke like he had said something very crazy.

Sasuke just shrugged.

"Okay, but they better be good, I don't want to be ill on Tsunade's check-up because of food poisoning."

-oXo-

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it?


	4. Chapter 4: 29th of June

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 4: 29****th**** of June**

Naruto walked up to the hospital for Tsunade's check-up. Sasuke was on a mission with Sakura and Kakashi. They would be back in a couple of days.

Now that Sasuke wasn't there to get him out of bed before noon, he had taken his chance. Naruto had lain in bed the whole morning.

He came to the hospital entrance and sighed. "Here goes nothing."

When he had finally found the right room, he sat down on the observation table. Tsunade wasn't there yet. At least it wasn't as cold as the last time.

He swung his legs and looked around. It was the same room as last time. There was a window 3 meters away to his left, right where no one could see a check-up directly from the outside. To his right there was a cabinet with a lot of drawers and cupboards; nothing interesting. The last piece of furniture was a chair next to the door where Kakashi had sat the last time.

Tsunade came strolling into the room. She had some dossiers, old scrolls and books with her.

"Okay," she said while laying the stuff down. "Let's begin."

She took some devices out of the cabinet she had also used last time. Took some measurements or something (Naruto didn't understand the use of the devices most of the time, but they were perfectly clear to Tsunade) and asked some questions now and then. After a while, when she was just putting down the light after shining it in his eyes again, she nodded with a small smile on her lips.

"Everything seems to be okay."

"So I can stop taking the pills."

"No, you still have to take them twice a day till the end of the week."

"I think I can handle that." He nodded to himself.

"Take off your shirt. I want to check the seal again. I'm not finished with my research but it helps me to get further if I check it out again."

Naruto took off his shirt. The seal wasn't visible. Tsunade first did some checking on his stomach without it being visible and pursed some of her light green chakra through it.

"Could you mould some chakra for me?"

Naruto put his hand together in the ram sign and concentrated. The seal became visible; it looked the same as the last time she had seen it.

_Good, _Tsunade thought_, at least there hasn't been any progress in the weakening of the seal. The fox was probably too busy healing Naruto._

She poured again some chakra into it. She could feel the fox's chakra running through it. It was a bit more active than normal, but nothing serious. She took some notes.

"Well that was that. You can put your shirt back on and go."

"Thanks, Tsunade no baa-chan."

-oXo-

A/N I promise next chapter will be longer and more interesting ^^


	5. Chapter 5: 7th of July

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 5: 7****th**** of July**

Sasuke and Naruto were lying in bed together. It had been a week since Tsunade's check-up and Naruto's mind was officially back to normal, the opposite could be said about his seal.

Naruto lay cramped on his side. His stomach was on fire and his spine hurt like hell. Until now the sickness caused by the seal hadn't been this bad.

Yes, he had vomited, had had stomach aches and a few headaches, but they were nothing compared to this.

He lay shaking, sweating, not daring to move and make the pain worse.

Sasuke reached out his arms and folded them around Naruto. He was touching him, groping for his shirt, found it and fumbled a bit with it. Finally he managed to lay his hands on Naruto's bare stomach. Lately he did this more and more often in his sleep.

Then he felt Naruto's pain spasms and the slightly too warm touch of his stomach.

He was abruptly awake. "You are in pain," it wasn't a question. "Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto just shivered some more.

"Is it your back?" The night before Naruto had been complaining how he couldn't sit comfortably.

He felt Naruto nod his head. "Hm."

Sasuke leaned closer to Naruto and noted he was sweating. "We need to go to Tsunade."

"I-it hurts s-so m-much."

"First I will get you an aspirin and then we go." Sasuke was getting more worried; Naruto never (really) complained about being in pain. He looked up at the alarm clock; it was 5:24 am.

He stood up, got an aspirin and a glass of water and was now standing next to the bed.

Naruto lay in a foetal position. Sasuke gently touched his shoulder and held the glass up. "Can you sit up a bit?"

Naruto moved to sit up, his face only showing he was in pain. He took the glass shakily. Sasuke also still held onto the glass, so Naruto wouldn't drop it. It took him two tries to take a gulp. When he had swallowed everything he went back to his foetal position.

-x-

15 Minutes later Sasuke was dressed, had dressed Naruto and was just closing the door of Naruto's apartment. The walk to the Hokage tower was slow, but apparently the aspirin was doing some work. That, or Naruto _really_ wanted to get there as fast as possible now that he was out of bed.

They walked up the stairs to Tsunade's office and finally arrived in front of it. Naruto was panting a lot and sweating and shivering, leaning on Sasuke.

Sasuke knocked on the door. He heard a sudden movement, a small gasp, some papers falling on the ground and a sleepily and startled _'Shizune, already back?'_.

"Hokage-sama," Sasuke said, when he entered. "It's the seal again. You have to help him." He let Naruto sit down on a chair and Tsunade was suddenly wide awake.

"What happened?" she asked while pulling off his shirt. It was damp from sweat.

Naruto groaned and almost fell forward on top of her. She steadied him and saw the seal shining bright black. It had changed again. The swirl looked the same, but the scribbles around it were fading, like someone had been trying to erase it with an eraser.

This was definitely not good, Naruto was very pale and shivering like he was standing in the Iron country itself. He moaned from the pain and tried to stand up.

"No, you should stay down," Tsunade told him.

"He said he has a backache. Last night he couldn't sit because of it and now it's much worse. Lying down might be better for him." They helped Naruto up.

"Aargh," Naruto groaned through the pain.

"I need Kakashi, he might be of help."

Sasuke made a Bunshin, which sprinted out of the office.

"Let's get him to my hospital room."

-x-

It wasn't easy getting Naruto there, but they had him finally on an observation table on his stomach. Sasuke took off Naruto's pants when Tsunade had said so, while Tsunade's green glowing hands moved over his back.

"There is nothing wrong with his spine, but Kyuubi's chakra is pulsing through it." Then she came to his tailbone and stopped. "What the-?"

Kakashi choose that moment to come back with Sasuke's clone, which disappeared the moment they stepped in the office.

"How is he?"

"What's wrong?" Kakashi and Sasuke asked at the same moment.

"I've never…" Tsunade pulled down Naruto's boxers a bit. A small bone was growing right where his tailbone was. It was about 5 cm in length, from which 3 cm was covered by skin and the rest was just bare bone.

"Is that-"

"-a tail? Yes it looks like it." Tsunade touched it at the base with her finger. Naruto screamed in pain and clutched the table. She covered her hand with chakra and hovered above it.

"A lot of Kyuubi's chakra is concentrated here. It's like, with the seal fading, the fox is trying to change Naruto's body to resemble his own." She reasoned.

Naruto cramped up again, holding back a scream as the tail was growing a little again.

"How can we stop this?" Sasuke asked.

"Let me see the seal again. Turn him around; hurry."

They turned Naruto around, which he didn't wanted to do at first, but Sasuke talked him into doing it anyway. Kakashi and Tsunade each stood on a side of the table bending over the seal. Tsunade pushed Sasuke away. They both held their hands glowing with chakra over him.

Naruto couldn't lie still because of the pain. He looked up at the two persons bending over him and then closed his eyes in pain again. This time he couldn't suppress the scream.

"Aaaargh!" He buckled his pelvis up, trying to relieve his weight of the newly forming tail. Sasuke hurried back to Naruto and held his hand. Naruto gripped it painfully hard.

The tail was now over 15 cm and started to grow red fur.

Sasuke watched how Kakashi began to write some symbols on Naruto's stomach while talking to Tsunade about seals.

"Let's hope this works," Tsunade said. She made a lot of hand signs and slammed her fingers on Naruto's stomach. He doubled over onto his side.

He stayed silent for a while as everyone waited for something to happen, or more precisely, not to happen. Then he gave another jerk and a scream of agony, tears streaming down his face from the pain. The whisker marks on his face were becoming more pronounced, but that wasn't by far the worst thing going on. The tail had begun to grow a lot faster.

"Shit. Didn't it work?" the Hokage asked.

They tried to turn Naruto back, but he was not moving from his foetal position. The tail was almost complete. They finally managed to turn him around. The seal was now a swirl with a dark black ring around it.

Kakashi and Tsunade were rapidly making symbol markings on his stomach. They finished and again Tsunade made some quick hand signs and slammed her hand _again_ onto the seal.

This time they knew it had gone well. Naruto didn't react as intense as before. He rolled to his side and coughed a bit. The seal looked more or less the same as it had always been. The swirl was still a thick line, but the markings around it were more clearly then they had been for weeks. Naruto finally let go of Sasuke's now aching hand.

Naruto lay unconscious on the table, the seal disappearing.

However a real and complete foxtail was coming from his bottom. Sasuke stared at it. It had red fur, but the tip was white.

Kakashi went to sit down on the chair next to the table. Tsunade made a check-up on Naruto and then went to sit down behind the desk in the room. She held her hands over her eyes. It was silent for quite a while.

"Is he… What just happened?" Sasuke was finally able to say.

"I want to do some different tests on Naruto. I need someone with the Byakugan to take a look at him. I don't think Naruto has been 'just not feeling well' for over the last month. I think that the fox was already doing some changes. Changes we could not detect."

Tsunade looked down to Naruto. "This is more serious than I thought. I thought the seal was fading, but not only that it's also changing him to become like the fox." She looked over to where Naruto laid, his new tail shifted a bit. He was no longer in pain. He was sleeping; exhaustion from the ordeal written all over his face.

Sasuke was stroking his hair from his still clammy face.

"What do we do now?" Sasuke looked from Kakashi to Tsunade and back.

"First we wait till he wakes up," Kakashi said while looking at Sasuke.

"After that we will see what to do with him." Tsunade stood up from behind her desk. "I'll go and find a Hyuuga, maybe Neji, because they know each other. But he isn't a medical ninja. Perhaps I can-" She walked out of the office, still talking to herself.

-x-

Naruto woke up because he was cold. He was still lying on the examination table in Tsunade's hospital office. They had thrown a blanket over him, but it had shifted and now he wasn't under it anymore.

Sasuke sat in a chair next to him and had his head lying on his arms, leaning on the table and on top of the blanket, which was the reason the blanket wasn't around Naruto anymore. Kakashi sat in the chair in front of Tsunade's desk. His visible eye was closed, but Naruto knew he was awake.

Naruto shifted his new tail; that sounded weird and it felt even weirder. It did what he wanted it to do, like it was normal to him. He shuddered, but this time it wasn't from the cold.

He sat up without waking Sasuke up.

"Kakashi-sensei," he whispered. Kakashi looked up at him. "What time is it; I'm hungry." Kakashi actually sniggered quietly at that, but it was hard enough to wake Sasuke up.

"Naruto, you're okay," and he hugged Naruto abundantly, which made Naruto go red in the face.

"Sasuke…"

Sasuke suddenly seemed to realize they were not at their homes and pulled back incredibly fast. A stoic look on his face like nothing had happened. Naruto had to blink a few times. Kakashi seemed to have some trouble too; it was kind of uncharacteristic for Sasuke to behave in such a way.

"Yeah… I'm fine." Naruto finally answered. "Except…" He turned a bit so he could look at the tail that came from under the blanket. Naruto looked at it with a look of unreality, like he didn't know if it was real and if it _was_, what to do with it.

He realized that he was embarrassed and blushed a bit at which he averted his eyes from them.

"Your clothes are still sweaty, so here is a patient gown." Sasuke gave a greyish-blue gown to Naruto, who stood up from the table. He put on a kimono-like jacket, but when he got to the trousers he hesitated and looked up to Sasuke, who got the hint.

He grabbed the trousers and pulled out a kunai. He made a rip in it on the place where the tail would be and handed it back. Naruto stared at it and then put it on. He fumbled a bit with the tail, but finally succeeded to put it right and tie the sash around his waist, before his trousers could fall down his knees.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, except-" He fiddled a bit with the string of his boxers under his tail. "Not comfortable."

Kakashi stood up, walked to Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder. Naruto looked up to his only visible eye. Kakashi just looked back. It looked like he wanted to say something but then decided against it and just let go.

"I'm going to look for Tsunade and bring you some food. Don't leave the office." And he walked out of the room.

Naruto just kept staring at the door, so Sasuke stepped forward and hugged Naruto again. This time Naruto returned the hug.

"Sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"That I made you worry so much."

"Usuratonkachi."

They stood there for a moment. Sasuke could feel Naruto getting uncomfortable. He let his hands slide down, very slowly, toward the tail; Naruto stiffened. Then Sasuke grasped it very carefully. He held it in his grip for a short time before beginning to stroke it.

The fur on it was incredibly soft. After stroking it for a while Naruto began to relax and Sasuke could feel him become more comfortable. So comfortable in fact that Sasuke could actually hear him purr.

Sasuke stopped at that and looked up at Naruto, who obviously had no clue why he had stopped.

"You were just purring." Sasuke said when Naruto kept giving him a questioning look.

"I did not."

"You did."

"I... R-really?" Naruto blushed.

"It was sweet." Sasuke smiled a bit, which made Naruto's blush deepen.

"It _did_ feel good."

Kakashi chose that moment to come back into the room with a food tray. He saw how close Sasuke and Naruto were standing to each other and the way they were looking around, embarrassed; so tried to be casual. They had the tendency to close up if he acted on it (_how weird_).

He placed the tray on the desk.

"Tsunade will be here with a Hyuuga in 15 minutes." He seated himself in the chair Sasuke had been sitting in.

Naruto and Sasuke walked to the desk. Naruto went to sit in Tsunade's chair behind the desk and Sasuke chose the seat Kakashi had been sitting in, opposite of Naruto. They each took a bowl of soup and began eating.

"Itadakimasu," they both murmured.

When they had finished eating (Naruto had practically inhaled his food, as hungry as he was) they didn't need to wait long. Tsunade entered the office; behind her Hinata stepped into the room.

"Ohayo," she said shyly.

"Ohayo."

"Hey, Hinata."

"Luckily I ran into Hinata in the hallways. She is not a medical ninja, but you know each other and she is sure to be trusted." Hinata got a light blush on her face at those words. "So if you both will stand up and stand next to each other, Hinata will be able to compare the two of you," Tsunade said as she pointed to Sasuke and Naruto. Hinata's blush deepened.

"I explained everything to her, so she knows."

Naruto looked over to Sasuke for a moment and then went to stand next to him. He did not look Hinata in the eyes and instead looked at the ground.

"You can begin, Hinata."

"O-okay." Hinata activated her Byakugan and let her eyes dart between Naruto and Sasuke. When she saw the tail, she gasped a little, but she didn't want to embarrass Naruto so she went on.

She looked at Naruto's chakra systems first. It looked normal, except for where his seal was, but it was normal for Naruto.

"Naruto-kun's chakra system looks fine, except that there is slightly more chakra from the fox running through it than usually."

"That's to be expected. Go on."

Now she compared their blood vessels and lymph nodes, but they were the same; she told them so. But then, when she looked over at his bones, she gasped again.

"His bones… they are a lot more dense then Sasuke-san's, but they are also very hollow. At the looks of this he could be lighter, but the bones are more… firm? than normal."

Naruto glanced at Tsunade.

"Okay, we can weigh him later." She nodded to Hinata to proceed.

She looked at his organs, his kidneys, bladder, intestines, liver, lungs and heart.

"The volume of his lungs might have increased, but I can't say for sure. They are a bit larger then Sasuke-san's, but that could be normal." She looked over to Tsunade, but her face didn't reveal anything. "The rest of his organs look fine."

"His eyes and nose next." Tsunade told her and Hinata turned her attention back to the boys.

"His nose is further developed then Sasuke-san's and looks more similar to Kiba-kun's; though it is not nearly as advanced. His eyes…" She squinted her eyes a bit. "They look… well, I can't really compare them to Sasuke-san's because of his Sharingan, but they appear to have more nerve connections."

"That could mean he has better sight." Tsunade concluded.

"His ears… they look the same but at the same time a bit different. It's not like the eyes and the nose better developed, but… It could be nothing," she ended. She deactivated her Byakugan and looked back at Tsunade. She fumbled a bit with her fingers. "And err… he looks to have grown a bit." At that Naruto looked over at Sasuke, to compare himself and grinned.

He was grinning, not because he had grown so much, for Sasuke was still taller, had always been. Besides Naruto didn't really noticed any big difference in height compared to Sasuke, who stood at his high 177 cm, but just because he might have grown a bit.

Sasuke did not give anything away and just stared back.

"Thank you Hinata. If you would like to go to my office in the Hokage tower, I will see you shortly."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." She opened the door. "Bye," she said, looking to Naruto, who waved back at her, and walked out of the office.

"Naruto, come over here, take off your clothes and go stand on the scale." The busty woman cleared the area around the scale.

Naruto sighed and grumbled. Sasuke thought he heard him say something like _'just put them on'_ and _'it's cold'_, but either way he pulled them off, till he was only in his boxers. He fiddled again with the elastic string right under his tail.

He wanted to pull it up, but the tail was in the way, so it had to go under it, which made the elastic string push uncomfortably at the base of the tail.

Tsunade looked at him fiddle and swatted his hand away. He narrowed his eyes at her and grumbled some more.

Once he stood on the scale, Tsunade read out from his file. "Last time your weight was measured, was three months ago. You weighed 57 kg then." She looked over to the scale. "Now it is…" She waited a moment for the needle to stand still. "50.2 kg. That's considerably less; it is close to your weight when you were 16."

Naruto left the scale and wanted to put back on the hospital gown, when Kakashi stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. Naruto looked back questioningly.

"Not so fast. I know you want to get out of here, but you are not finished yet." He pointed to the wall next to the scale, where Tsunade was now putting up a measure tape.

He turned around and shuffled to the wall and stood against it.

"Hinata was right; you have grown a few centimetres. From…" She looked at the file again. "168.7 cm to…" She looked at the tape. "170.1 cm." She notated this in his file. "I also want to measure the tail, so we will know if it still grows or not."

She pulled the measure tape from the wall, which stayed stuck to the wall because she had poured some of her chakra into it. She turned Naruto around and held the tip of the tape at the base of the tail. He squirmed a bit.

"Stop squirming."

"But it tickles." He swished the tail a few times and then, when he saw Tsunade's face, held it still. She measured it and Naruto tried not to laugh, which was getting harder for him at the second.

"58 cm." She let him go at the same moment Naruto began to giggle. She looked at him, with a raised eyebrow and then wrote the new finding down.

"Can I-can I get dressed now?" He said through a few last giggles.

"Yes, I only want to measure your eyesight before you can go."

Naruto went straight to his clothes and pulled them on, again fumbling with the trousers and the sash.

When he had finished, he had to read some lines from a distance. Tsunade finally nodded.

"It seems your eyesight has stayed pretty much the same, improved a little, but nothing spectacular." She scribbled something in the dossier. "That's it for now."

Naruto looked nervously at Tsunade. "You will let me go home now, right?"

"Yes, but I might send Sakura or Kakashi over from time to time to check up on you."

"I think I can handle that; at least no pills." Naruto walked to the door.

With his hand on the doorknob, he turned to face Tsunade and Kakashi. "Thanks, for everything," he said softer then his normal voice and walked out the door.

Kakashi grinned behind his mask; he knew Naruto had really meant it. Sasuke was about to follow, when Tsunade grasped his arm before he could walk out the door.

"I want you to write a report about this," she said quietly so Naruto wouldn't hear. He nodded and she let him go.

"This is going to be interesting," Kakashi said to Tsunade.

"It already is."

-x-X-x-

When Naruto and Sasuke entered Sasuke's apartment, Naruto immediately took off the cape he had been wearing outside the hospital and went straight to the bedroom. Sasuke followed him and noticed the clock, which read 11:13 am. Naruto fell on the bed and pulled off his clothes.

"Guess we have to make holes in your clothes." Sasuke stated, walking over to the closet. He pulled out a pair of older boxers of his own and tried to make a hole in them with his kunai. When he was done he looked over to Naruto, who was watching him from the bed. He threw the boxers to Naruto.

"Try them on; they will fit better than those you have on now."

Naruto pulled himself up and started to undress. He put on the boxers and was struggling with the hole and the tail. Sasuke walked over and helped him. He grasped the tail and pulled it through the hole.

Naruto yelped when he grabbed the tail. "You can be more careful, you know."

The boxers were finally on and Naruto wanted to dive back into bed, but couldn't because a certain someone was still holding his tail.

"I'm tired; can't we just go back to bed?" Naruto asked sleepy. Now that he was in reach of the bed, now that he could smell it, he realized he was really tired.

Sasuke let go. "Okay, but we have to talk later." And he followed Naruto under the covers.

As soon as he was under them Naruto hugged him.

"I don't want to think about it yet, but I'm so glad you were with me," he mumbled, already nearly asleep.

Sasuke hugged him back and began tracing circles on his back. To his amusement (actually in secret he had hoped for it) Naruto began purring again. He decided he loved that sound, especially because only he knew about it.

After a while, when Sasuke had long stopped tracing circles, Naruto was still purring; though to a lesser degree, while both slept in each other's arms.

-oXo-

A/N Okay, so this is it... :} What do you think?


	6. Chapter 6: 17th of July

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 6: 17****th**** of July**

Naruto sat at the kitchen table while Sasuke was cooking. His tail was swishing between the bars in the back of the chair.

The day after the 'tail-growing', Sasuke and Naruto had adjusted all his trousers and underwear. They hadn't made holes in it, but had made a cut and an overlapping piece on the band of the belt with buttons. This was done so the button could be opened and closed if Naruto had to pull the clothes on or off, which made it easier for him to pull on the clothing.

"After diner we should go for a walk. You haven't left the house for a week and people keep asking me what is wrong with you. Except for the occasional visit of Kakashi or Sakura, you haven't seen anyone other than me. Iruka is really starting to annoy me, threatening to come by. I should just let him." He looked over to Naruto, who looked a bit sad.

"I know, but…"

Sasuke sighed softly. "They are your friends, they will understand. With the exception of Kiba I guess."

"Okay."

"Okay, what?"

"Okay, we can go for a walk later, but can we wait for a few hours?"

"But it will be dark by then."

Naruto looked up into his eyes. "Exactly."

"Alright, I guess it's a start."

Naruto had shown no sign of wanting to go outside even once. He didn't even want to go to his own apartment to pick up some stuff.

When Sakura came over for his first check-up the next day, he had acted very strange and out of character. At first he hadn't even wanted Sasuke to open the door for her, although he already knew it was Sakura.

When Sasuke had finally managed to open the door, the blond had gone straight into bed, hiding under the blankets.

Fortunately Sakura had acted very professional and had not even shown the slightest grin or gasp at the sight of his tail. Otherwise they might have died at the hand of some form of the Rasengan, Sasuke expected.

After 20 minutes of checking him up and another 15 minutes of uncomfortable conversation between Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto had finally become his normal self again.

On the third day, Kakashi had come by to tell that Sasuke had to go on a mission with him. Naruto had acted very normally, mainly because they had told him that Sakura would pass by the next day.

When Sasuke came back from the mission Naruto was even cooking vegetables for himself. Sasuke was so impressed, that he had initially not noticed the great amount of meat Naruto had prepared as well. Even more impressive was how he had eaten it all on his own. Sasuke could have sworn he had seen canine teeth sticking out of the corners of his mouth, but on later inspection there were none to be seen.

"You know," Naruto began. They were now sitting on the couch in the living room together; Sasuke reading a book and Naruto watching the television.

"Hn?"

"We have never been alone together for such a long period of time."

Sasuke thought for a moment. Naruto was right. Until now they had only spent at most two nights with each other. They had only begun staying over at each other's places one and a half month ago.

"I must say that I kind of like it," Naruto said hugging his knees, while he kept staring at the television. There was some kind of horror movie on. Sasuke grinned.

"Yeah, me too."

"Really? I know I haven't been myself this week. I admire how you have dealt with it," Naruto said seriously, looking at Sasuke. Naruto wasn't this serious very often.

"Well, you weren't always easy, but I must say that I found out some very interesting things about you." Sasuke showed an evil grin.

"Like what?" Naruto looked curious.

"Like the purring."

Naruto had began to purr at all sorts of times; when he was laying in the sun, when he was eating Ichiraku ramen Sasuke had brought home, when he had stood under the shower for so long Sasuke thought he had drowned and even at a time when Kakashi was over.

Sasuke and Kakashi were discussing the details of their next mission, while Naruto sat in a chair next to them not even listening to what they were saying, staring out of the window. Out of the blue he had begun purring.

Kakashi had been so bewildered, he couldn't even laugh (which he surely would have done otherwise, Sasuke was sure of it). After five minutes of purring, Naruto had finally noticed they were not talking anymore and were watching him. When they told him he was purring (because very strangely, he still couldn't tell when he did), he had promptly stopped, had blushed, got angry and had walked out of the room.

Only later that evening when he had gotten hungry he had come back to Sasuke, not saying a word (which hadn't bothered Sasuke at all).

"And?" Naruto wanted to know, slightly red in the face.

"How hyperactive you become when you haven't eaten ramen for three days."

Naruto grinned at that. "Yeah well, what can I say?"

"That you have an incredibly soft tail, how sensitive the base of it is, some other interesting spots you cannot resist and how I should not underestimate a bored Naruto."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Yesterday you were so bored, I saw you reading one of my books."

"I was just curious what you were reading, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, it was just... curious."

"Hmpf."

Sasuke looked out the window. "Is it dark enough to have a walk?"

Naruto looked as well. "Guess so."

Sasuke sighed. "Everything will be just fine."

"Yeah well, you're not the one with a tail sticking out of his butt."

"I just meant that-"

"That what? People already think I'm a freak… That I'm a monster?"

"What?" Sasuke finally understood what was scaring Naruto so much. "No, that was not at all what I meant."

Sasuke shifted on the couch and said calmly, "Naruto, you know that your friends won't see you that way and that they will support you. The villagers might have to get used to it a little, but they don't think you are a monster anymore."

Naruto wanted to argue about that, but Sasuke went on without giving Naruto a chance to tell him otherwise. "I even heard some villagers talk a few weeks ago about how you would make a fine Rokudaime Hokage. Besides, I love you, so you don't need those villagers anyway." He hadn't told Naruto about the villagers; afraid it would have gone to his head.

He paused to let it sink into the spiky blond's mind.

"Are you serious?" he asked carefully after a while.

"Off course I am, I wouldn't lie about something that means so much to you. Becoming Hokage is your _dream_."

"That's not what I meant."

Sasuke pulled up an eyebrow. "Then what?"

"You said you love me."

Sasuke blinked a few times. He _had_ said that, and yes, he _had_ meant it. "Off course I do, dobe, why else would I be able to be around you so much."

At that Naruto's face went from an uncertain smile to a big grin. He grabbed Sasuke and hugged him very, very tightly. "I love you too, teme," he whispered in his ear.

-oXo-

A/N: I already got some reactions, thank you all for that, they were really helpful and I really like it :D I'm very happy.

Also I wanted to say that I know that 'teme' means _you _(in a more rude way) in Japanese, though I use it not in that way in my story. I didn't know a good translation that fitted (in my opinion) so I just used it like this and as an 'opposite' to Sasuke's 'dobe'. Hope you understand :)

Also I've come to notice most of my chapters are more or less as big (or rather small actually) like this one. With the exception of a few ;3 So I will try to keep posting a chapter every other day (like before) to make up for the shortness ;)


	7. Chapter 7: 19th of July

Disclaimer: Naruto still not mine and I'm for that. I wouldn't be able to wait in anticipation an entire week for the next manga to come, because I would already know what would happen.

-oXo-

**Chapter 7: 19th of July**

Two days later, Naruto had finally left the house not only in the dark, but during the day as well. Naruto only went out when he had a cape on, but Sasuke was already glad Naruto had finally decided to visit Iruka; alone nonetheless.

Naruto knocked on the door of Iruka's apartment. The sound of a scraping chair was heard and then he opened the door. When he saw Naruto, his face lit up.

"Naruto! Long time no see. Shall we go to Ichiraku ramen?"

To Naruto it never mattered what time of the day it was when it came to Ichiraku ramen. Iruka knew out of experience that Naruto would go in the middle of the night if it were possible.

"Nah, I want to talk to you for a bit. I would prefer to do that in here." The answer came with a small smile.

"Well, come on in then." Iruka opened the door a bit further and Naruto stepped in. Iruka had a feeling he would finally be told, what he had wanted to hear from Naruto for a long time now. Of course he already knew, it was quite obvious, but still; it wasn't the same as being told personally.

Naruto didn't take off his cape but went straight for the kitchen table, where they sat more often when he came over and Iruka made some tea.

"So, how are things?" Iruka said from as he stood behind the kitchen counter.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Naruto looked down for a moment.

Yes, he would finally be told about Naruto and his relationship with Sasuke; that they were officially together. The chuunin poured some tea into cups and put them in front of them on the table.

"What do you want to talk about then?" Naruto and Iruka looked at each other.

"The reason I didn't pass by for such a long time. You know, it's about Kyuubi."

That was absolutely not what Iruka had expected, but he didn't let it show on his face.

"What is it then? Are you all right?" Now he was getting concerned. Kyuubi was usually not a good topic to talk about (he actually couldn't think of a time they had talked about it).

"I am now; sort of." He fumbled with his cape. "Iruka-sensei, remember I told you I was ill every now and then last month?"

"Yes?" Now Iruka was really getting concerned; he almost couldn't keep himself from asking all sorts of questions.

"Well, last week we found out why. The seal was getting weaker." He looked back up at Iruka, who replied in a state of panic and concern.

"What? Are you all right? Nothing bad is goin-"

"Calm down, Iruka-sensei, I knew you were a worrywart."

"What do you mean worrywart, this is serious. You could have been seriously hurt or even-?" he ended in a high tone.

"I'm not." Naruto loosened the cape and let it drop to the ground.

"_But_?" Iruka could definitely hear a _'but'_.

"But… something else happened. However things are fine now, I'm okay," he added quickly at the look on Iruka's face. "With the exception of an extra appendage."

"Eh? What do you mean by- O my god, is that a tail?"

Naruto had stood up and turned around. He actually laughed at the look on Iruka's face.

"Yeah well, it is, but Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade no baa-chan have steadied the seal. So for now I'm good." He gave Iruka a grin.

Iruka on the other hand was still in a bit of a shock. Especially when he saw Naruto wiggle his tail a bit.

"But… how…" His mind couldn't decide on what to ask first.

Finally after taking a few sips of his tea and Naruto sitting back down, his mind cleared a bit. This was absolutely not what he had expected would happen when Naruto came over.

"Are you really all right? Why didn't you tell me sooner? I could have been there for you." They looked at each other again.

"I know, but I was in a bit of a shock myself, I guess. Besides, I wasn't alone. Sasuke helped me a lot in the past week." He was quiet for a moment and then added, "Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I know you would have liked me to. I guess I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"It's okay, I can understand."

Iruka decided Naruto needed a topic change (and so did he, there was more he wanted to know). Iruka knew Naruto would tell him more about it later, when the conversation was more comfortable, then he would come with the details himself.

"So, how is Sasuke doing?" Iruka was scratching the scar across his face.

"He's fine. He has been on a mission to the Sand to talk with Gaara a couple of weeks ago. I think they are getting more comfortable with each other." He looked into his empty cup. "It's nice being around him so much and I really appreciate all that he has done for me." He looked at Iruka and saw the look in his eyes. "What?"

"Ow, come on Naruto, when are you going to tell me?"

Naruto blinked. "Tell you what?"

"That you are seeing each other."

"But that's obvious, we are in the same team, of course we see each other."

Iruka slapped his hand against his forehead. "That's not what I meant; I meant you two being together."

"Ooh, ri~ght." Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Well, I thought you already knew."

"Of course I know; it's kind of obvious, but you never really told me."

"Aha, okay. Well, Sasuke and I are together. Now you know." His grin widened.

Iruka shook his head and laughed. "Yes, you're right. So how are things between the two of you?"

"Well, we have been together for an entire week now, I mean in the same house. That never happened before. I liked it." He began to blush. "I mean, we have been sleeping over at each other's apartments for over a month now, but never so many nights." He was about to start rambling.

Iruka smiled. "I noticed that. There were some small and subtle changes you showed in your way of acting around that time."

Naruto looked up to Iruka. "Really? Was it that obvious?"

"Not for others probably, but I could see it. I guess Kakashi and Sakura noticed as well. You were acting a bit nervous back then, especially when mentioning Sasuke. It was the first time I noticed you were together."

Naruto laughed a bit nervously. "So you hadn't noticed anything before that?"

"No." Iruka bowed forward over his tea. "How long were you already seeing each other then?"

Naruto stared at him. "Seeing each other," he repeated. It sounded so stupid because they had been seeing each other almost every day for two years now. However the way Naruto looked at Sasuke completely changed with Sasuke kissing him. He had been freaked out at first. "Since February we started... seeing each other, but Sasuke 'told' me about his feelings a month before that." Naruto looked down at the table again, red in the face. "Can't we talk about something else?"

Enough information had been exchanged for today about this subject. He still wasn't completely comfortable talking about it to others. He just took Sakura and Kakashi for granted as he saw them so often. They were like family and even Iruka did so too, even more so, like a father figure, but that was all the more reason to be nervous about telling these things.

Iruka stood up again, laughing softly, noticing Naruto's uneasiness about the subject. "That's okay, what you want to talk about." He grasped the teapot to pour in some more tea.

"Well, I know it sounds weird, but do you have any carrots around? Sasuke has been feeding me veggies all week. I have kind of begun to like them." It was silent for a second and then they both laughed.

"Naruto, you always know how to surprise me."

Naruto grinned back.

-oXo-

Next chapter: Sasuke's birthday is coming closer...


	8. Chapter 8: 22nd of July

Disclaimer: 3 words... Naruto. Not. Mine.

-oXo-

**Chapter 8: 22****nd**** of July**

Naruto sat on the wooden pole on their usual training ground number 3, eating a carrot. Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura were doing some katana practice. They had been doing it the whole morning now.

Naruto sat on the pole without his now usual cape, which was lying on the ground. His tail was swishing back and forth while he was studying the movements his teammates were making. He had stopped by while they had already begun their training.

Sakura defended herself from what could have been a fatal strike from Kakashi and gave a swing with her own katana to finally let it end in the ground; it was lunch time. They all walked over to Naruto, who had jumped down the pole.

Naruto looked over at Sasuke and grinned widely. He looked very happy and Sasuke didn't look to bad himself. He was actually showing a small smile on his face even though he had been training for five hours straight. Sakura noticed the small limp Sasuke had been showing all morning. She looked back to Naruto and when they were all sitting down, it hit her.

"Oh my God, have you guys been having sex?"

"What?" Naruto became very red and almost choked on his last piece of carrot as he looked to Sakura. Sasuke seemed shocked as well for a second, though it was barely visible as he hid it very fast behind his normal facade. Kakashi's eyebrow rose.

Naruto stopped coughing. "No, we have never had-"

"Shut it, dobe."

Now Kakashi seemed interested as well. "Never...?" Kakashi mumbled looking suspiciously, but he soon had his next question ready. "Does he purr when you-"

"Shut it, Kakashi!" said Sasuke with a threatening voice.

"What is _that_ for a question?" Naruto asked.

"Just wondering." Kakashi shrugged.

"Then why are you limping, Sasuke-kun?"

"Because the dobe over here, let me trip yesterday," he said with a huff, not believing she would actually think he would be uke when it would come to it.

"I told you I was sorry about what happened, I already made it up to you."

"By having-"

"No!" they said in unison.

"Honestly, Kakashi-sensei, is that all you can think about? One day I'm going to confiscate those books from Ero-sennin from you and burn them, I swear."

"You don't even know what I was about to say; besides you wouldn't dare." His eye narrowed as he said the last words, staring at Naruto.

"Oh, yes I would!"

"I'm going to the village to buy something to eat, I forgot my bento box," Sasuke said and stood up.

"Are you fleeing?"

"Hn." He walked away.

When he was out of ear range, Sakura turned her head back and asked Naruto, "So about Sasuke's birthday party, he hasn't noticed yet, has he?"

Naruto gladly took this opportunity to change the subject as he still felt a little red in the face. "Nope, he is completely in the dark. He still thinks you guys have a mission and I promised him I would only take him for a walk. He doesn't want to do anything else."

"Good, so when you go for a walk, Ino and I will decorate his apartment. Kiba also offered to help."

"Nice. I think we will go around six, after dinner, till seven o'clock. Would that be enough time to decorate and hide everyone?"

"I think we will manage." Sakura grinned evilly.

"Okay, so everybody already knows?"

"Yes, I think I have invited everyone." She counted on her fingers. "Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Konohamaru, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Kurenai-sensei didn't know yet if she would come, Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-sama would look if she had some time to pass by, Yamato-taicho, Guy-sensei-"

"Urgh." They looked at Kakashi.

"I just chewed on something that didn't taste good," said Kakashi from behind his book, chopsticks in his other hand. They stared at him for a second.

"And I invited Iruka-sensei, so I think that was everyone," Naruto finished Sakura's sentence and she nodded.

"Here is my key." Naruto handed Sakura a key from Sasuke's apartment. He gave his foxy grin, like when he was going to do a prank, and held his hands behind his head; his tail was sweeping back and forth, efficiently dusting the ground. "He will be really surprised."

Sakura grinned as well.

"Let's hope so," Kakashi said, "I would like to see the look on his face, when he notices he won't be alone with Naruto all evening."

Naruto stared at him. "It's not like we are glued together, you know."

"That doesn't mean he might not have plans for only the two of you," Kakashi said as he stared expectantly at Naruto.

"You really are a pervert, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said.

"I thought we had already concluded that a long time ago," Sasuke suddenly said, sitting on the wooden pole behind them with a box of omusubi.

"Sasuke-kun, how long have you been sitting there?" Sakura asked, thinking their surprise party might be ruined.

"For over three seconds," Naruto said, slurping from his red bean soup he had just poured out of a thermos, not looking around to Sasuke.

"Oh," Sakura said in answer to the anti-climax. "You knew he was coming?"

"Yeah, it stinks," he said between two spoons of soup.

"What? You mean Sasuke-kun?"

"No, I mean the rice balls; they really have a strong smell." He grinned.

"…"

"Sasuke too, of course," he joked. That finally caused him to get a slap on the back of his head.

"Itai."

"Don't get foxy with me, dobe."

Naruto looked at him a bit hurt. "That's not funny Sasuke."

"That's not what I meant."

"Yeah, I know, but it still hurts." He looked away and stood up, walked to his cape and put it back on.

"Naruto, don't go. You know he is sorry," Sakura said, "You can come and train with us."

"Really?" A big, foxy grin was spreading over his face as he stood with his back to the others. This was what he had aimed for. "What are we going to do?" he asked excited as he turned around.

Sakura rolled her eyes, Naruto was so easy to influence. Everything else seemed to have been forgotten to him.

-oXo-

A/N Yeah, I think Naruto is sometimes more cunning than he lets on... sometimes :P


	9. Chapter 9: 23rd of July

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 9: 23****rd**** of July**

It was early in the morning, the sun was rising on the 23rd of July; Sasuke's birthday. Naruto and Sasuke were still lying in bed. Naruto began to stir and woke up and he turned around to face Sasuke.

Sasuke was still fast asleep on his stomach and Naruto got an idea to surprise his raven; he put his leg over Sasuke and sat on his buttocks. Sasuke awoke and his eyes flashed open, then Naruto began to massage his back and his eyes closed again in pleasure.

"Happy birthday."

Naruto massaged Sasuke for some time and then Sasuke began to move. Naruto put his arms and legs on either side of Sasuke, so the raven could turn around. When he had, Naruto bowed forward very close to Sasuke's face. They stared each other in the eyes and then Naruto started kissing Sasuke on the mouth. Sasuke returned the kisses by pushing his tong into Naruto's mouth.

They laid there for a while only taking short breaks so they could breathe. A purring sound was heard and Sasuke intensified the kissing.

Finally Naruto broke loose and fell down next to Sasuke, both panting.

"Kakashi was right."

"About what?" Naruto asked confused.

"You do purr when we-"

"Eh~?" The purring stopped abruptly.

"Don't stop now."

"It's not something I can do on command, you know. It just… happens. I can't help it."

"Then _I'll_ help you," Sasuke said, bending over Naruto, letting his hand slide over his torso and starting kissing him again. He let his other hand search for the red tail and stroked it a few times. Naruto began to swift his tail at the touch.

Sasuke reached up higher till he found the button which kept Naruto's boxers in place. He began tracing circles around the base of the tail and stroked it tenderly. Naruto tensed a bit at the touch and then moaned softly, but no purring. Sasuke had had enough; he pulled at the button to loosen the boxers.

"Sasuke?"

Then there came a knocking sound from the front door. Sasuke sighed and a _'damn'_ slipped his mouth. Naruto looked up at Sasuke, closed the button again and stood up from the bed. Sasuke lay grumbling and pulled the blanked over his head. Another knocking could be heard as Naruto quickly put on a shirt and some loose pants. Sasuke heard him stroll to the door and open it.

"Ohayo, Naruto. I wanted to congratulate Sasuke-kun before we would go on our mission."

Sasuke grumbled some more. Was this why they had been disturbed?

"I'll get him. Sit down, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, walking to the bedroom, while Sakura settled herself in a chair in the living room.

"Sasuke? Sakura-chan wants to see you before she goes on her mission. Come out of bed."

Sasuke folded the covers back and pulled some clothes on, while Naruto returned to Sakura. He grumbled softly all the while.

When Sasuke came into the room Sakura congratulated him, stayed to talk for a few more minutes and then had to go. Naruto in the mean time had gone to the kitchen to make breakfast.

When Sakura had left the apartment, Sasuke went to the kitchen and hugged the blond from behind. "Shall we finish what we started?" He put his head on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto blushed. "You know that I have to go to Tsunade for another check-up later, right?"

Tsunade had told Naruto she wanted a check-up every week, to keep a closer eye on the fox as he tried breaking the seal.

"Hn. I forgot." It was safe to say that Sasuke was in a foul mood that morning.

-x-

Naruto stood up to clean the table. It was 5:43 pm, time to take a walk.

"You coming for a walk?"

Sasuke liked taking walks. It was something they would do together more and more often.

Sasuke stood up from the table as well and walked to the door. They put on their sandals and Naruto grasped his cape.

First they just strolled down the streets, where they met Lee who congratulated Sasuke exuberantly telling them all about youth and such. When they had finally shaken Lee off, they set out for the Hokage monument.

Sasuke wasn't sure why Naruto liked it so much to sit on the head of the person that had sealed the fox in him, but he couldn't disagree with how beautiful the view was from up there.

Sitting there for over 15 minutes, looking over Konoha, Naruto finally stood up. Slowly they walked back to Sasuke's apartment. It began raining and they ran the last part. It was a nice summer rain, not cold, but still wet. Naruto's spiky hair wasn't so spiky anymore. He shook his head to clear the raindrops and to annoy Sasuke.

Sasuke took out his keys and opened the door. Naruto pushed him inside and at that moment the light went on in the room and a loud _'Surprise! Happy birthday!'_ came from the room full of people.

Sasuke stood a little flabbergasted, but barely showed it, with his stoic face quickly intact. Though it hadn't been fast enough for Kakashi apparently, for he was having an inside joke, chuckling. Sasuke looked over to Naruto, who stood grinning in front of the door; as if Sasuke might want to run away.

"Surprise," he said again, "Hadn't expected that, right?"

Then Ino came walking forward, hugged Sasuke a little too long and kissed him (which he absolutely did not like and let it show, but Ino seemed immune). The party had started.

-x-

Sakura had not only invited everyone but had also told them about Naruto (or more precise, his tail). So they were prepared. Naruto had been very grateful to her. He hadn't looked forward to telling (or showing) them himself.

Ino, Sakura and Shikamaru were talking to Sasuke, who didn't look so annoyed anymore. Naruto came hurrying past Sasuke, having had enough of Guy-sensei and Lee's youth speech and how good he was in keeping things up in his 'condition'; fleeing over to Iruka, Kakashi and Sai.

"-mom told me, I was really surprised," Ino finished. Sakura laughed along with Ino. Shikamaru and Sasuke just stared.

When Ino was done laughing, she looked Sasuke straight in the eye. "So, how are you and Naruto doing? Already living together, I heard."

"Where did you hear that?" Sakura asked surprised. She was sure almost no one knew how close the two really were. She didn't even know herself precisely how close they were. That was why she kept guessing and asking things about their relation to them.

Ino switched her gaze to Sakura. "I just heard," she said simply. Now Sakura suspected she was just guessing.

"Then you heard wrong," Sasuke said.

"I told you not to believe all those gossip and especially not to ask _them_ about it," Shikamaru waved to Sasuke. "Troublesome."

"Talking about gossip," Sakura said, "I heard you and Chouji-"

"-have a mission together tomorrow. That's right," Ino quickly finished Sakura's sentence. Sakura pulled up an eyebrow.

"STOP ASKING, KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto's voice echoed through the room. Kakashi was looking very amused (somehow), Iruka looked a bit shocked and Sai looked somewhat interested (as far as that is possible) with his usual smile on his face. Naruto stalked past Tsunade and Yamato straight to Sasuke, looking rather annoyed.

"Did he ask about the purring?"

"Yes."

"Hn."

Sakura looked over to Kakashi and shook her head.

"Purring?" Ino was very interested.

"Don't ask," Naruto warned.

"That's so cute," Ino squeaked, "When?"

Naruto looked angry at her and wanted to move away, but Sasuke stepped in. "That's mostly only for me to hear," he simply said, successfully shutting Ino up about this. Shikamaru gave her an I-told-you-so look.

"So how are Kurenai-sensei and Akane-chan doing?" Sakura asked Shikamaru to change the topic.

"Just like a mother and her two-year old daughter should be: healthy."

Sakura looked over to Ino for a better explanation. "Last week Akane-chan was having a small fever and when she had drunk a bit too much orange juice, she managed to puke on Shikamaru." She giggled, Shikamaru looked a bit sour. "Temari said he smelled for two days. But Akane-chan is all better now."

Sasuke leaned over to Naruto to whisper. "Why did you do this again?"

Naruto looked back a bit surprised. "Because they are your friends and it's nice to have them over on your birthday"

"Just _you_ would have been fine."

"Don't let what Kakashi-sensei said become true."

"About the purring?" Sasuke asked confused.

"No… about you wanting to be alone with me tonight, because… you know." A small blush crept up his face.

"Oh... he said that?"

Naruto nodded and Sasuke became silent. "Wait… you mean he was right?" Naruto's face fell somewhat.

Sasuke didn't answer.

"I think I can handle the purring questions now…" Naruto said, ready to turn away again.

"Did I hear the word purring?" Kiba came walking to them, followed by Akamaru.

"No," Naruto said a bit too fast.

"Tell me about it. I didn't know foxes could purr."

Kiba was a 'little' drunk and Naruto smelled it all too well. His eyes narrowed and he waved his hand in front of his nose.

"Kiba-kun, please," Hinata said, grasping his arm, "I will take you home."

"No~, the party just started."

"It's already 11:30, Kiba-kun. If your mother hears you were drunk again…" She didn't need to finish the sentence. Kiba shuddered, remembering his own birthday, or more precise the day after.

"Okay, I'll go," he said obediently and walked to the entrance with Hinata and Shino.

"Wow, didn't know Hinata had twisted Kiba around her finger like that," Ino whispered to Sakura, who nodded in agree.

Lee, Tenten and Neji came to say they were going as well, giving Sasuke a hand.

"You should do this every year, Sasuke," Tenten said.

"It brings out your youth and it was really sociable." Sasuke just nodded out of politeness.

Neji just gave him a stare and Sasuke returned it.

"I would like to see those two together in a room for an hour," Ino told Sakura.

Naruto grinned. "You think they will stare each other to-AAARG!" Naruto turned around along with everybody else. "Kiba, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Kiba had pulled very hard on Naruto's tail and was still holding on to it. Naruto tried to pry him loose, but it didn't work, he was holding on tightly. Hinata and Shino also came into the room, having noticed Kiba had gone, looking with a mix of worry and anger to the brunet.

"Look everybody, Naruto's gotta tail!" he said loudly.

"Yes, we know. Now let it go, Kiba."

"Look, it's real, when I pull it-" He did so and Naruto gave a yelp and looked about ready to form a Rasengan.

Not liking the idea of the house of the Uchiha being shredded to pieces, Shino stepped in. "Kiba, just let him go."

"Why? It's so soft." He was squeezing the tail know. "Say, Naruto, where are the matching ears?"

This time Naruto really was forming a Rasengan. That was the cue for Ino, Hinata and Shino to pull Kiba away from the angry blond and for Sakura and Sasuke to calm Naruto down.

The yellow chakra disappeared and peace was once again established. Hinata apologized over and over and finally took off together with Shino and Kiba.

"That really hurt," Naruto said, not wanting to rub his butt or tail with everybody in the room.

"Let me take a look at it," Ino said a bit too eager; just taking the opportunity to touch the tail as well, but nonetheless Naruto didn't struggle. "Nothing serious," she said, letting go, "Kiba is right though, it really _is_ soft."

"Yeah, yeah, very nice and all, but you don't have to walk around with it."

"But it's so cu~te."

"I don't want it to be cute."

"She _is_ right you know."

"Sasuke~"

"Alright kiddo's, enough playing around with fluffykins here."

Naruto gave Kakashi a really sour look. "When I become Hokage, I will definitely confiscate those Icha Icha books," he said with an evil voice that, in combination with those words, made Kakashi flinch.

"Don't get ahead of things, gaki," Tsunade said, grinning.

-x-

After everybody had left the apartment Sasuke fell on the bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. Naruto stood watching him for a while, flicked off the light and sat down next to Sasuke.

"You're going to sleep in your clothes?"

"Hn," came a grumble from the pillow.

Naruto moved over Sasuke and untied the raven's pants and pulled them out; then went for the shirt. Sasuke wasn't really cooperating, which made it a bit harder, but finally he succeeded in pulling it off as well. He undressed himself and lay down on his side, with a hand under his head, next to Sasuke, on top of the covers. Sasuke, having turned around on his back, had his eyes closed.

Naruto stroked a hand through the raven's hair. It was nice and soft and smelled like lavender. Playing with one of Sasuke's long locks, Sasuke began to make a soft sound.

"Prrr, grrr, prrr."

Naruto stopped playing with the hair, though still holding it between his fingers. "Are you mocking me?" he asked while Sasuke preceded his attempts of purring and then stopped.

"No, just showing you what a nice sound it is." His mouth curved upwards. "But I must say, you do a much better job at it, I can't really compare to it. Besides you can purr and speak at the same time."

Naruto stayed quiet and began fumbling with the hair in his hand again, not sure if he was angry or to think of it as a compliment.

After some silence he called the other. "Sasuke?" He waited till the other would answer in any way, but nothing came, so he went on. "Did you not like the party?"

Sasuke turned his head and opened his eyes. "Hmm, I guess it wasn't so bad." A small grin was on his face.

Naruto grinned and rolled on his belly, his hands reaching under the pillow. Sasuke closed his eyes again and heard Naruto yawn.

He had eventually quite enjoyed his birthday, but he just couldn't really say that out loud; afraid of what next year might bring.

An owl hooted in the distance as they fell asleep.

-oXo-

Next: Sasuke is away on a mission, what's Naruto going to do all day?


	10. Chapter 10: 31st of July

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 10: 31****st**** of July**

Naruto lay alone in his bed, looking at the ceiling. He wasn't used to being alone in his own apartment anymore. He rolled over onto his stomach. It was four in the morning; he never woke up this early.

Blaming Sasuke for this, he went out of bed to get a glass of water. It was in fact the third night he had slept alone, the day before Sasuke had gone on a mission with Sakura and Sai.

Yesterday Naruto had been called to come to Tsunade. He would go on missions again, since the seal had been stable for over three weeks now and Naruto was getting very annoying not being able to do something useful.

His day would be filled with simple D- and C-ranked mission in Konoha together with Tenten. This was because team 9 had originally been assigned to do a B-ranked mission the next day, but Neji had to do some very important Hyuuga business and Lee couldn't come because he had a broken arm; hence the perfect opportunity for Tsunade to team Naruto up with a more normal and above all sober person to keep an eye on him.

Normally Naruto would have protested against doing C- and especially D-ranked missions, but he actually felt right to begin with these simple missions. He still wouldn't show his tail in public, so this was probably the best way to practice and feel more comfortable with it or so Naruto had decided.

Naruto walked back to bed, after putting the glass on the counter. He still had two and a half hours to sleep before he had to go on the missions. Back in bed, Naruto fell asleep almost instantly.

_He dreamed he was on a green hill filled with beautiful yellow daffodils. He felt good; very, very good. It was as if he was home, he had belonged here forever and would always be. He knew every flower, every rock and every curve in the__ small river. _

_He lay there along the stream paddling his feet in the water, when he suddenly saw it. His eyes were drawn by the most peculiar thing he had ever seen; for he had never seen it before. It looked somewhat similar to the daffodils, but it was not; the leaves were different. The colour was red, pure blood red, and the stem had pointy things on it. _

_He walked to it and touched it, but pricked his finger on a thorn and pulled away._

_What was this beautiful flower, in a strange way more beautiful than the daffodils, but at the same time very dangerous. For which plant would want to hurt someone? _

_He wanted to touch it again, but this time he was more careful, only touching the pedals of the flower. He wanted to pick the flower and so he did. However as soon as he had, the flower began to bleed; all the red from the beautiful red flower was dripping out of the end of its stem and fell on Naruto's shirt. _

_He tried to stop it, but he was too late; the beautiful red flower was now becoming a dreadful black one. It scared him, for black was the colour of death__ and thus to be feared. _

_He wanted to throw it away, but it would not let him go. The stem had been growing vines, which were creeping around his arm. There were growing more and more vines, until Naruto could not move anymore.__ The vines were squeezing very tightly. He would die, he couldn't breathe. _

Naruto woke up with a jolt. Still confused he turned to his side and felt his arms, but there were no vines there. He wondered what that had been for a dream. He had never had a dream like this before.

As he lay in his bed, mulling over the dream, his alarm clock sounded and he went for a shower, ate some and left the building.

He was again thinking about the dream on his way to meet Tenten until he saw the brunette and the dream was immediately forgotten, replaced by nervousness and enthusiasm about his missions.

Tenten looked very happy and waved at him when he arrived. She pulled out a scroll with mission descriptions on it out of her pouch.

"First mission is close by. A shop owner wants us to help paint the front of the building. Let's go."

They arrived at a small grocery shop and an old, plump lady stepped outside. "You are very early. How nice of you to come so quick, I only handed in the assignment two days ago," she said very politely.

She told them where the paint was and what had to be painted. She looked over Naruto again and finally asked, "Are you the boy that saved us from Pain, the fox jinchuuriki?" as she saw the whisker marks on his face. Her face was hard to read. Naruto hesitated for a moment but finally answered with a _'yes'_.

Instantly her eyes became very friendly and she grasped his hands. "I've never been able to thank you for that. You saved us. If only my husband was still alive, he would have told you how you saved him and are just as much as a hero as the Hokage."

Naruto grinned embarrassed. "Aah." He scratched the back of his head.

"And is that your girlfriend over there; she is very pretty." She winked at Naruto before she walked over to Tenten. "You are a very lucky girl," she whispered, bending a little over to Tenten, which was not necessary since Tenten was taller than her.

The old woman straightened again, for as far as she could, because she was bent in her old age. "I'll be going inside now; I've been standing for too long." She went inside the shop, leaving a dumb folded pair of ninja behind.

It was a small shop; the façade was at most 4 meters wide. Naruto walked up the wall and began painting from the left top, trying to keep his tail covered at all times, while Tenten started from the right.

Two hours later they had finished, and wanted to go, but the woman insisted they had some tea with her. Being kind of thirsty and not wanting to be rude, they accepted her offer.

Next missions were a delivery, cutting grass in an orchard and picking strawberries. They were currently watering a very large garden of some rich family. Naruto loved watering, it was his hobby. Walking to the pump to fetch some water, swiftly sweeping his tail behind him, he saw Tenten standing there. He felt a bit guilty she had to do all of this with him.

"Tenten?"

She looked up at him, giving a small smile.

"You don't think this is annoying? I mean, doing stupid D-rank missions with me?"

Her eyebrows went a bit up. "Not at all. I don't mind doing some low-brain-activity jobs once in a while. Besides now I have a small break from Lee and Neji. Sometimes they get a bit too much, if you know what I mean." She winked at him and he smiled back.

When they had watered all the plants outside and Naruto discovered a greenhouse Tenten could hardly pull him away from it.

"But there are plants in there too," he said.

"The lady of the house said only to water the plants outside."

Finally Naruto let his arms drop and went to the owner with Tenten, telling her they had completed the mission, still sulking.

"That was about time too," she told them. "If my gardener hadn't convinced me that he couldn't do anything in the garden with a broken arm, I would have never let you come." She had a very stuck-up voice and way of moving, her chin up high in the air. "I thought you ninja could be so fast."

"We're sorry, oku-sama," Tenten told her patiently, holding Naruto back, who was already annoyed by the woman.

The woman looked them over and huffed. "Well, don't count on it that I will ask you to come again. Ninja really are a waste of time and money," she said, while turning her back to them, "Pathetic."

Tenten now had an even harder time keeping Naruto in check and to keep him to shut up. But she couldn't help him from growling loudly at the woman, as in giving a real animal-like snarl.

The woman turned around. "Have you got something to say to me?" she said daringly and looked Naruto over, scrunching up her nose as if he was something smelly.

Finally recognizing him as the fox jinchuuriki, she added. "I want you to leave my property at once. I don't want to see _that boy_ here anymore." She turned around and went inside the building.

Tenten was surprised that instead of making a big scene, Naruto stopped squirming and walked away.

"She is just a very old and mean woman; don't let what she said get to you."

"I know. I've met her before; I'm used to it by now." He looked over to Tenten. "She's not worth winning over. Besides when I become Hokage, she will come to respect me." He said determined and smiled.

"You're right, Naruto."

-x-X-x-

That evening Naruto felt a bit tired, but satisfied. He waved Tenten goodbye and walked to his apartment. He was just eating his cup ramen, when knocking on the door could be heard. He stood up from his kitchen table and went to the door. When he opened the door Sai was standing in front of it.

"Hey, Sai," he greeted the boy, wondering what he was doing here.

"Konbanwa, Naruto." He smiled a bit and continued with the same smile, "Sasuke has been hurt on the mission."

"What? What happened, is he alright?" Naruto asked worried.

"He has been to the hospital, but is at home now. He would like you to visit him." The smile had changed into something that Naruto though might be considered worry. Or he was completely wrong and it was satisfaction, he couldn't really tell.

"But what happened?"

"He took a hit to protect the client and got poisoned. Sakura healed him, but he is still not feeling well. Sakura could only do so much with the resources she had with her. But he will be fine." Sai studied Naruto for a moment. "I'm sorry, but I need to go and hand in a report. Good bye."

Naruto waved at him and stood there for a while letting it sink in. Then he put on his sandals and cape and sprinted out in the direction of Sasuke's house.

Stopping in front of the door, gasping for breath, he knocked on the door like a madman. Sakura opened, looking a bit annoyed.

"What?" she asked. Then saw Naruto, who sprinted past her to Sasuke. Sakura closed the door and followed him to the bedroom.

Sasuke lay in bed, his eyes open, but looking rather pale.

"Are you all right?" Naruto asked.

When Sasuke didn't immediately answer, he turned to Sakura and asked again. "Is he all right?"

Sakura nodded and went to sit on the chair next to the bed, and placed Naruto on the bed.

"He just needs rest and let the rest of the poison out. I couldn't get everything out, but it's not lethal anymore. However to get the poison out, he will probably vomit a lot." She explained and Naruto nodded. "And you need to change the bandage, because there might also be coming some poison out of the wound. You need to clean it at least every three to four hours. I brought some clean bandages; they are on the dresser over there." Sakura pointed to Sasuke's dresser.

"Okay, I can do that."

"I thought you would. I'll be going then. Let him have enough sleep, okay?"

"I will." Naruto walked her to the door to let her out. "Thanks, Sakura-chan." She waved and walked away. She looked tired.

When Naruto entered the bedroom again, Sasuke lay there watching him. Naruto lay down next to Sasuke.

"Are you in pain?" he asked softly. Sasuke shook his head once, feeling slightly dizzy, he stopped.

"You want to tell me what happened?"

"No," Sasuke rasped a bit. "Just lie down here." He coughed. "Tell me what you did today." He closed his eyes.

"Okay." Naruto rolled on his back with his hands under his head, giving sideways glances to Sasuke every now and then. "Today Tenten and I did some small missions in Konoha." He told Sasuke about his day.

When he had finished he looked over to Sasuke, who was snoring lightly. Naruto grinned, stood up and went to the kitchen. He took out something to eat and sat on the couch.

Two and a half hours later he stood up, poured a cup of tea for Sasuke and walked to the sleeping boy. He had no idea where the wound was, for he could only see Sasuke's head coming from under the covers. Not wanting to accidentally press it, he thought it saver to wake Sasuke up.

"Sasuke?" Nothing happened. "Sasuke?" he said a little louder this time. Sasuke opened his eyes, still looking rather greenish.

"I have to change the bandages. I brought some tea if you like."

Sasuke sat up a bit with help of Naruto, groaning. He pulled up his shirt. A bandage was wrapped around his torso at the height of his stomach; it looked a bit green. Naruto carefully removed the bandage.

The wound itself wasn't much bigger then a kunai stab (which it probably was) and was not closed so the poison could get out. The wound looked a bit greenish next to the small parts of red flesh showing, but that wasn't what made the wound look bad. Neither the green puss that was on the bandages from the wound; it was odourless and looked quite clean. It was the fact that the veins around the wound were visible and blue-green looking, standing out on his pale skin.

Naruto grasped a small cloth and made it wet by dipping it in a bowl with water Sakura had placed on the nightstand. Very carefully he dabbed the wound. Sasuke grinded his teeth, but didn't make a sound. Naruto quickly cleaned the wound and bandaged it.

He went to wash his hands in the bathroom, cleaned the bowl and put the bandages in some cleaning water in the sink. When he came back, Sasuke had drunk his tea and was sleeping again. Naruto pulled out his own pants and lay down beside Sasuke. He set the alarm for three and a half hours later and fell asleep almost instantly.

When he woke up again it was because he didn't feel Sasuke beside him. The moment he opened his eyes he saw the light in the adjacent bathroom flicker on. He stood up and walked to the bathroom; a sound of puking came to his ears (and nose). Sasuke hung over the toilet, letting the brownish-green contents out of his body. Naruto sat beside him and rubbed his back, like Sasuke had done over a month ago to him when he'd felt sick as the seal had begun changing.

Sasuke kept bringing up wave after wave of green slime until his stomach was empty and could no longer push up anything to vomit. Sasuke groaned as he slowly leaned away from the toilet, feeling rather weak now that everything was out.

Naruto wiped his mouth clean and helped him up. He looked less green and much whiter in the face again. Not that Naruto liked the pale colour on Sasuke's face. It was a bit creepy, only Sai should look this pale.

Naruto half-carried the raven back to bed, his dark eyes half closed. Finally having Sasuke installed in the bed, he went to get a glass of water and gave it to Sasuke.

"Here, drink some. Are you in pain?" he asked again.

"No, just not feeling well." After emptying the glass (not too fast, he didn't want to vomit again so soon), Sasuke lay carefully down again. Naruto decided to change the bandages while they were awake anyway. After refreshing them, he washed them.

Quietly he lay down in bed as he already heard Sasuke's soft breathing.

This ritual of bandaging and puking would go on for the next eight hours, till morning.

-oXo-

A/N: It's a bit of a filler chapter I guess. Just to show that Naruto is working on his life to return to normal (as far as that is possible with a tail); taking it step by step. That is the only reason he takes D-rank missions, for I don't think he would normally do that. But inside he's still quite unsure of himself.


	11. Chapter 11: 1st of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 11: 1****st**** of August**

Naruto had just cleaned the plates and cups they had used for their breakfast in bed and walked back to Sasuke when he saw him already halfway out of bed.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked concerned, though he calmed down a bit when he saw he wasn't in any hurry for the bathroom.

"I'm going to the living room," he said, shivering.

"Let me help." Naruto helped him put on some trousers and a sweater and brought him to the living room. He had put all the cushions in the right position, laid Sasuke on them and covered him in a blanket. Sasuke asked for a book and Naruto got it for him.

After ten minutes Sasuke groaned and Naruto looked up as he sat leaning against the couch, sitting on the floor.

"What is it?"

"I can't read it." He shivered again.

"Why not?"

"I'm too dizzy." He looked at Naruto, promising.

Naruto snatched the book out of his hands and studied it for a moment. "I'm not going to read this too you," he said, "It's all in kanji."

"Then learn it, Naruto!"

Naruto scrunched up his face, foxy style.

"Can you come over here?" Sasuke then asked.

Naruto sat down on the couch next to him.

"I'm cold, hold me," he simply said. Naruto complied and Sasuke curled up against him. "You're warm."

"And you're really cold." Naruto began to rub Sasuke over the blanket, trying to warm him up a bit. But after a few minutes, Sasuke gave him a look that told he didn't wanted to be rubbed right now, so Naruto stopped.

However sitting still wasn't one of the things Naruto was famous for in daily life. After a while Naruto got bored and began shifting. First sweeping his tail, later he began moving his arms ever so slightly.

"Stop it."

"What?"

"The twisting."

"I'm just bored."

"Then think of something to do. Concentrate on your chakra, go read a book or tell a story or something."

"About what?"

"I don't know… your life… something." Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted a story, but at least he would be able to block out what Naruto was saying if it wasn't important.

Naruto thought for a while. His life story wasn't really one to tell about and of the things he could tell, Sasuke probably already knew about.

"You know…" Naruto started after a moment. "You know why I like to sit on the Yondaime's head on the Hokage monument?" he asked.

"No. I must say that I always wondered why you would want to sit on the head of the very person that sealed the Kyuubi inside you," Sasuke answered honestly and looked up to Naruto, who gave a small smile. Sasuke looked so horribly pale, even for him.

"When I was fighting Pain, there was this moment Hinata came to help me and got stabbed. I thought she had died and I sort of let Kyuubi take over. It came to the point of eight tails forming and I almost took off the seal." Naruto paused for a moment, thinking how to say the next part. Sasuke waited patiently, seeing it was kind of important to him and because he felt a bit nauseous again.

"Yondaime stopped me. He appeared in front of the cage and I punched him in the gut." Sasuke said nothing, thinking it was kind of justified to punch the one that changed your life so drastically. "Though, he had already told me that he is my dad." That didn't register immediately.

"What?" Sasuke looked Naruto in his bright blue eyes. Of course he had seen a picture of all the Hokage's in his schoolbooks. The Yondaime had those same eyes, he remembered. That wasn't all that was the same. "You met your dad?"

"Yeah, short of." Naruto fumbled with Sasuke's blanket.

"You're the son of the fourth Hokage." Sasuke fell silent for a moment. "Hnn, I must say I didn't see that one coming. Though I guess you do look alike."

Naruto grinned. They were silent for a moment. Naruto absentmindedly again rubbing Sasuke, now on his arm even though he had stopped shivering.

"How come you never told me?" Sasuke swatted at Naruto's hand softly and it stopped rubbing him.

"I don't know, I never told anyone."

"No one knows?"

"Kakashi knows, Yondaime was his sensei after all. Jiraiya must've known. I don't know." He shrugged.

"Did you meet your mother as well?"

"No, I've never seen her."

"Oh." Sasuke shifted and tried to grip Naruto tighter, but he was still injured. He groaned in pain and felt nausea taking over. Naruto looked over to Sasuke and held him steady, so he wouldn't move anymore.

"You should be more careful, the wound is still open." Naruto began stroking his hair instead and saw how Sasuke relaxed a bit.

"Do you remember our mission to the land of mist?" Naruto suddenly asked.

Sasuke opened his eyes to look over to Naruto. "Of course, how could I forget?"

"I really thought you had died there in the mirrors of ice. I didn't really _love_ you back then, but you were my best friend and… well, I'd never had anyone so close to me and especially not protecting me. Although you didn't really die and I would rather you don't do such things again, I think that on that day I really came to realize you were very important to me."

"Hn."

"Why do you always do that?" Naruto said indignantly, his tail brushing against Sasuke out of annoyance.

"Do what?" Sasuke looked up to Naruto.

"I sort of pour my heart out and you just say 'Hn'."

Sasuke said nothing and looked with his expressionless face back to Naruto.

"Oh, never mind." Naruto looked away from Sasuke.

When he turned back Sasuke had a tiny smile on his face as he looked out the window in front of him, which made Naruto grin back.

"Oh, I could cuddle you to death right now."

Sasuke's smile dropped. "Please don't."

Suddenly Sasuke became green again and Naruto quickly gave Sasuke a pail. His breakfast came all out again, very green looking. Sasuke heaved one more time and let the pail lower as a trail of green saliva hung from his mouth. He groaned. He began shivering again and Naruto gave him a small towel and brought the pail away.

When he came back he had the clean pail in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He sat down on the couch and pulled Sasuke closer to warm him, wrapping his blanket around him more tightly and giving him his tea.

The raven nestled himself carefully against Naruto and closed his eyes. He hated being like this. Being in pain was better than this. At least his pain tolerance was pretty high, but nausea you couldn't really block it out.

He was glad Sakura had been with him as he got stabbed. That stupid client. If he had just listened to Sasuke, then he hadn't had to jump in front of him taking that kunai.

Sasuke had to admit it was also partly his own fault. He hadn't believed it necessary to use high ranking jutsus or even Susano'o in this mission; his own pride had let him from doing so. Sakura had been so kind to remind him of that as soon as she was sure he was stable enough that he could comprehend what she was saying. Nonetheless she had carried him on her back till they found Sai again, who had been wondering off after another attacker.

He sighed and immediately regretted it as bile rose up in his throat, but he swallowed it back. Naruto had apparently noticed it as his hand made a movement to the pail, but pulled it back when he noticed it was fine. The hand instead went up to the raven's hair again, playing with it.

Slowly Sasuke wandered off again and his head rolled a bit to the side as his breathing slowed down.

-x-

Later that day, Sakura came by to check if everything was okay. She was just changing the bandages when Kakashi came by as well.

"Yo," he said as he entered the room, seeing a half naked Sasuke and Sakura bending over him. "Are you doing a threesome?" He got an angry stare from all three. "Ah, gomen, gomen," he said, while scratching the back of his head and waving his other hand in defence.

Sakura finished up and sat down in the chair, Kakashi was sitting in the other. Naruto had made some tea for them all and then sat on the couch at Sasuke's feet as Sasuke was still laying on it. They talked for a while, but when Sasuke was half asleep, looking rather green again, they decided to let him have his rest.

Later he woke up, but this time not out of pain, a nightmare or of the urge to puke. He just woke up, or so he had initially thought. It was already four in the afternoon, his bandages had been cleaned and he had not even noticed.

He looked around and saw Naruto watering the plants… a bit too much. Water was spilling over the pot on the window-sill. Naruto always took very, _very_ good care of the plants; what was going on?

Sasuke sat upright a bit too fast; thinking something bad was going on. It wasn't the seal right? But because of sitting up too fast, he felt the wound and because it was so unexpected he groaned.

Naruto looked around, a look of guilt on his face. "Sasuke, you're awake?" He looked a bit shocked, but kept pouring water on the poor plant.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked concerned.

Naruto wavered a bit, but apparently decided to just spill it.

"I'm sooo sorry," he said.

Sasuke's concern for Naruto was immediately replaced by concern for other things. "What happened?" he asked again, but this time his tone was more urgent and accusing.

"I was just… watering… and then I… knocked that pot over," he finished with a small voice. "I know it can never really be replaced, but I will, I swear."

Sasuke looked to the ground. A small simple pot made of clay lay broken on the ground. This had probably woken him up. Sasuke looked back to Naruto.

"I know it belonged to your mom, I will glue it back together!"

Sasuke looked back to the pot again. He couldn't help it, but he began to laugh very softly. Naruto raised an eyebrow. Sasuke laughed a bit more, but stopped soon, when his stomach began to hurt.

"What's so funny?" Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Naruto, you obviously haven't noticed, but I got a dozen of those pots. They are in fact on the closet in the bedroom. I couldn't care less if you broke one." Naruto looked at the broken pieces on the ground, on one piece was the Uchiha fan, and then back at Sasuke.

"I… I really thought this was very important to you. You could have told me!"

"I have, but you were probably distracted, like you tend to do when the topic is about pots and vases."

"Oh."

Sasuke couldn't help the grin on his face, but he thought he had tortured Naruto enough with making the blond believe that the pot was valuable. No need to make it worse. "Your plant is drowning."

Naruto turned around and shrieked. He put the watering can down, grasped the plant and went to the sink, carefully stepping over the broken pieces of the pot.

Sasuke turned to the kitchen, but that had not been a good idea, he began coughing. It hurt and he was coughing up blood with green slime. Naruto came running back from the kitchen.

"It's okay." He held Sasuke up, but felt very useless for not being able to do something about it.

Sasuke finally finished the coughing, looking very pale and a bit green under his eyes. Naruto cleaned Sasuke's hand with a cloth and then held the raven against him. He stroked Sasuke on the back with one hand and held the other on his neck. Somehow, this felt really good to Sasuke and made him feel slightly better, though still feeling nauseous. After some time Naruto laid him back carefully and cleaned up the broken pot. Slowly Sasuke dozed off again.

-oXo-

A/N: Although Sasuke doesn't like being ill, I think he secretly likes the attention he's getting :3


	12. Chapter 12: 5th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

Originally I hadn't written the... 'flashback' is a bit of a big word I think, it's only a few days ago... but I decided to put it in here nonetheless (thanks to some reviewers ^^ Thank you for those). Didn't want to shift up all of my chapters however and thought it was too small to be a separate chapter anyway, so I solved it like this.

-oXo-

**Chapter 12: 5****th**** of August**

_Sasuke sat on the cou__ch with his blanket around him, staring out of the window. It had been two days since he was brought home. He wasn't nauseous all the time anymore. Instead it was more scheduled, so it seemed. Every four to five hours his stomach had to empty itself. It made him feel a lot better not puking all day long at random and being dizzy, but at the same time he now felt how weak he was. He could barely stand up to get to the toilet._

_He gave a soft groan as he rubbed his hip which ached from his fall the day before. When he had fallen Naruto had carried him to the bed and had begun laughing as he saw Sasuke sitting on the bed like an old man, rubbing his hip. He had _not_ appreciated it. Naruto had immediately stopped laughing as he saw the scowl on Sasuke's face and hadn't dared to touch him or come even close to him the next couple of hours; partly because he was afraid he would laugh again, which would most certainly result in his untimely death. Couldn't risk that._

_At the moment Naruto was to the market to get some supplies. Sakura would come later that evening to check on Sasuke's wound and Naruto had invited her for diner, which she hadn't declined. Sasuke didn't mind. If Sakura would help with the cooking a bit it made things only better. Sakura was a fine cook and Naruto was eager to learn from her since his new found interest in vegetables. _

_A bird sat on the windowsill and Sasuke watched it for a while. He was quite bored, but he didn't feel like reading and he couldn't do much else. Television also wasn't really something he enjoyed. So he just sat there, waiting for Naruto to come back and warm him up; his personal heater. _

_Naruto didn't like being called a heater, but he knew it was true. He was almost never cold and Sasuke would make use of that every night they got into bed.' It is the reason why people sleep together in one bed, to warm each other up', Sasuke had told him. Somehow Naruto had believed him, or just hadn't bothered to tell him otherwise, Sasuke didn't know. _

_The doorbell rang and Sasuke turned away from the bird as it flew away. He groaned again, not wanting to stand up. Perhaps, whoever it was would either just leave and hadn't been a person he wanted to see anyway or just enter the apartment themselves and he wouldn't be able to cast them out. He stayed quiet to listen if it would be the first or the latter. He hoped for the first._

_A knock was heard and Sasuke suddenly began to wonder if it was perhaps Naruto who had forgotten his keys once again. Thinking back, trying to remember if Naruto had taken his keys, the door suddenly opened. Damn._

_Ino came walking into the room with a rose in her hand. _

"_Hey, I was already beginning to wonder if I should just come in or just leave. I was apparently right to think you just didn't bother to come to open the door." She smiled and put the rose in a small vase on the table where a lonely daffodil was standing and sat down on the couch next to Sasuke._

_Sasuke just stared at her and shivered some as she brought in some cold air. Ino began talking about something to which he didn't even bother to listen and just looked out of the window again. This was why he didn't even notice she had long stopped talking to him and was just looking at him._

_She began laughing softly and Sasuke finally noticed she wasn't talking anymore._

"_Sasuke, you can just tell me when you are bored. Perhaps I should get you something to drink?"_

_He turned to her a bit surprised and accidentally showed it; being ill made his emotion-barrier go haywire, sometimes dropping it or make it even stronger. He hated it._

_Ino stood up and smiled as she went to get him something to drink, enjoying the look on his face. Sasuke was still angry at himself for showing her. The smile on her face was just... He sighed. Perhaps he still saw her as the fan girl from all those years ago. He guessed it wasn't really who she was any longer. _

_When she returned from the kitchen they actually had a nice conversation (not interesting, it certainly wasn't something to remember. But it was nice, he thought, to have a more 'normal' conversation with her). _

_After half an hour she left at the same time as Naruto entered the house._

"_Sorry it took so long, I met Iruka-sensei on the way and we kind of drifted off," he scratched the back of his head as he began putting away the groceries. Sasuke didn't bother to ask about anything, he knew that if he did ask, Naruto would just ramble about stupid things they had talked about. It was better to let him put away the groceries, come to the couch, warm him up and then if something important had to be said about his conversation with Iruka he would tell._

_Sasuke liked it when he was right and Naruto was sitting next to him, his warm hands under his shirt. Perhaps being ill wasn't so bad after all. He grinned._

_As Sakura came in sometime later he knew he had spoken too soon. He quickly snatched the pail from Naruto's hands as he had already reached for it and felt his not completely digested food come up again. On top of that Sakura thought it funny to examine his vomit in front of his face, making him almost throw up again. He had to take back his earlier statement; he definitely hated being ill!_

A few days later, Sasuke was doing better. Sakura had closed the wound, for there was no longer poison coming out of it; though not everything was out of his system yet. Mostly in the morning Sasuke could be found hanging over the toilet. However this morning it was over a wooden bucket.

"You look like a pregnant woman; puking every morning." Sasuke glared at Kakashi, which almost made him cringe back.

Team 7, with the addition of Yamato, were on a B-rank mission. Naruto had nagged Tsunade for so long to give him a mission that she'd eventually admitted to it. But she had only let Naruto go on the mission if the whole of team 7 and Yamato could go. Each of the group members could help Naruto if something went wrong with his seal.

Sasuke, not fully recovered yet, had only been allowed to go because he could be very convincing when it came to letting Naruto go on a mission without him.

Their mission was to accompany an important old priest and his protégé to the land of Earth, Iwagakure, and when they had safely brought the man back home, they would have to bring back a few very important scrolls he wanted them to have. Nothing really dangerous could happen, especially with so many good ninja around; besides the priest had paid for it and was just glad to have such good ninjas protecting him.

The priest was very polite and friendly. His age, far in his seventies, could not stop him from travelling around the world and sleeping in the open. But when Yamato had conjured up a nice 'camping place' for the first night, the priest had been very much delighted nonetheless. His protégé, a girl about the age of 14, was not so much impressed by the building as by Sasuke.

Naruto came walking in the common room, with only his boxers and shirt on, yawning.

"Being sick again?" he asked, seeing Sasuke hanging over the bucket.

"I think you knocked him up," Kakashi said.

"I didn't hit Sasuke," Naruto answered perplexed.

"I don't think that is what Kakashi-sensei meant," Sakura said, walking in as well, "And please pull on some pants." She walked to the bag with foods in it and began shuffling things inside, looking for something to eat.

"Hmpf. I'm not wearing my pants, because they are not in my room," Naruto said a bit annoyed, giving Kakashi a warning look because it looked like he wanted to say something inappropriate about it.

"Look what I did!" The young protégé girl came walking in, holding Naruto's black pants up. They looked at her questioningly. "There was a hole in it and I fixed it." She pointed it out, showing it in the direction of Sasuke. Naruto slapped his hand against his head and she looked at him. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi looked from the girl to Naruto and back.

"It was there for a reason," Naruto said.

"Why would anyone want a hole in his pants?" She then saw Sasuke wearing his own black pants and Naruto only wearing his boxers. Naruto turned around, his back to her and holding his hands in his hair frustrated.

"Oh," The girl said breathlessly; looking down at Naruto.

Naruto stopped mid action and turned around again. "Wait, why were you in our room while I was asleep anyway?" The girl was still staring at Naruto's tail, mouth hanging open.

"I was… I… You've got a tail!" She ran up behind him, grabbed the tail and pulled it, like she wanted to pull it off. Naruto yelped. "Kami-sama, he is possessed by a demon!"

Immediately she began doing some sort of ritual, murmuring in all kinds of unknown languages and waving her hands oddly. A silk rope appeared and bound Naruto, who lost his balance and fell to his knees. This was at the same moment the old man and Yamato walked in the room.

"- so release this boy from the demons grasp," she ended and threw some special spices she pulled somewhere from her sleeve in Naruto's face. He sneezed.

The old priest walked up to her and grasped her hand as she was about to throw some more spices into Naruto's face. "What are you doing?"

"He has been possessed; look at that tail and those marks on his face. He was covering it with a cape yesterday."

Naruto was still having a sneezing fit. Kakashi hurried to him and cut him loose from the silk, yet cutting restraints.

The man saw the tail and stepped back a little, holding his protégé behind him. Then he sighed and turned around to face the girl.

"Listen Mitoko-chan, first of all, this child is not being possessed. Second, if he was you should have come to me, you are still too young to perform such a ritual. And last, but not least, why are you holding his pants?" He was very serious. The girl turned red and looked at her shoes. In the background Naruto was still sneezing.

"I was just… I wanted to…"

"How can you ever become a priestess when all you do is spying on boys?" The old man asked with a raised voice. "Apologize to the boy."

She nodded to her teacher and astonished everyone when she walked towards Sasuke and bowed in front of him. "I'm very sorry that I was spying on you tonight and wanted to do again this morning."

It was very silent in the room. The man walked up to her and gave her a bang on the head. "I meant the other boy."

"Oh. But I have nothing to say to him, I just fixed his pants. We're even." She didn't say she had fixed it because she had thought it had been Sasuke's black pants and wanted to show him she could sew and be a good wife.

"Apologize!"

She strode to the sniffling Naruto and looked him in his tear filled eyes as there were still some herbs and spices on his face that irritated him.

"Gomen." She threw him his pants, turned around and walked out.

"How she will ever…" The old man shook his head. "I'm very sorry for this, excuse me." He walked after the girl.

Naruto rubbed his eyes, grasped a kunai from Kakashi's pouch and cut open the sewed up hole in his pants, grumbling all the while. When he had finally pulled his pants on he looked at the rest. "What?"

"You still have a bit of…" Sakura pointed a finger to her own face, "… on your face." She walked to him and brushed the spices off, which made him and Sakura sneeze.

"Bless you," said Yamato.

"Just now I was being exorcized and now I'm being blessed," Naruto grumbled, he was looking a bit sad and rather angry.

They gave him a somewhat compassionate look. He turned around and walked away to Sasuke's and his shared room. Sakura wanted to prevent him from leaving, but Kakashi stopped her. Sasuke then passed them and strode after Naruto.

"Let them be alone," Kakashi said, "This is hard for him, more then he let us know." Sakura nodded.

-x-

Sasuke entered the room and found Naruto sitting in the windowsill with his legs hanging outside, his tail brushing angrily against the wall. He stayed at the door and waited for a bit, he knew Naruto would talk to him. It was just a matter of minutes or even seconds.

He was right and after a while Naruto began to talk.

"Do I really…" But he couldn't finish his sentence.

Sasuke walked over to him and hugged him from behind, feeling the warmth radiating from Naruto to him. "Remember when I came back to Konoha and no one trusted me anymore?"

Naruto didn't know how this would comfort him, he had been shunned his entire life, that couldn't compare.

"I began to wonder why I had come back; no one was there for me. It reminded me of the time after the Uchiha slaughter. Everybody pitied me, but they weren't there for me. I had lost everything I had, the people that I loved." He held Naruto at arm length distance and turned him slightly so he could look straight into Naruto's eyes. Naruto noticed he still looked a bit pale, though not as bad as a few days ago and he certainly had more life in him.

"But this time you came to me and acted all stupid around me, like nothing had happened. I felt… I actually felt happy; glad that I had come back, even just for this one person." Naruto grinned, waving away the insult. "I didn't care what other people thought of me, because I had you and I knew you would help me make them recognize me once more." He gave Naruto a rare smile. "Let me be that person to you now, let me pay you back for all that you have done for me." Naruto smiled and a single tear fell down his cheek. "People already recognized you a long time ago, but you just couldn't really believe it. Let me show it to you. We will face this, together. You're not alone in this."

Naruto turned around completely and hugged the raven. Sasuke had never, ever said anything like this to him before. "Thanks Sasuke." It made him feel a lot better.

-x-

Later on, when they were on the road again, Naruto was still uncharacteristically quiet, but wasn't sulking and actually had a small smile on his face. Sasuke was walking supportively beside him. The girl, Mitoko, was floating around Sasuke, which began to annoy Sakura quite a bit.

"Could you stop that, I thought you were a priestess."

"That doesn't mean I can't have a boyfriend or get married," the girl replied.

"Doesn't mean you have to stalk Sasuke-kun." (Look who's talking...)

"Looks like I have some competition. Are you afraid I will get him before you do?" she asked. Sakura huffed.

"She doesn't need to be afraid of that," Sasuke answered.

Mitoko was immediately at his lips. "You mean you already chose me?" She looked up hopeful.

"No." The raven looked at Naruto, who looked back questioningly as he closed his cape more securely around him. Apparently he hadn't been following the conversation.

"What? But you didn't choose _her_, right?" Mitoko pointed to Sakura like she was some smelly, stray dog or something.

"If he had, you would have never even dared to look at him that way," Sakura told her with an evil look on her face.

"There, there Sakura, don't scare the client," Kakashi said.

"But who did you choose then?"

"That's enough, Mitoko-chan."

-oXo-

Next: Can Sakura refrain herself from strangling Mitoko? And what is Sasuke going to do about this?


	13. Chapter 13: 9th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 13: 9****th**** of August **

Four days later, the priest, Mitoko and their shinobi escorts were setting up camp for the last time, before arriving at their destination in Iwagakure. They had set up an actual campfire for this occasion and Yamato was about to finish his ghost story.

"-and they say that till this day, you can still see the little girl, walking around the grounds with her father's head in her hands."

"Wow, good one Yamato-taicho. I would almost believe you," Naruto said nervously.

"But it is true, the girl's niece told me so a couple of months ago."

Naruto grinned uncomfortably, Yamato could be very scary. He tried to curl his tail around himself; as if afraid it might get chopped off any moment.

"Can we talk about something more… happy?" Mitoko asked. "I've heard enough ghost stories in the monastery."

"You got a suggestion?"

"How about Sasuke-kun?" Ever since Sakura had mentioned his name, she had used the same suffix as she had. "Tell us more about yourself." Sasuke didn't even react.

"I know quite an amusing story myself, if I may say so." The priest began, smiling to himself, but his words never registered with the girl.

"Or I can tell you about myself first, that's more polite, I guess."

"He's not interested in you, can't you see?" Sakura attacked her verbally. Naruto, not wanting to get involved, looked the other way. This thing was getting quite annoying.

"You're just jealous, admit it."

"What? Are you kidding me? You're not even an adult yet!"

"Well, I could say the same about you."

"WHAT?" Sakura clenched her fists and sounded a bit agitated, just a little bit...

"How could a man love a woman without curves? Sasuke-kun would love a more curved body, like mine." Mitoko straightened herself as if to show that she was.

Sakura couldn't handle things anymore. She had been listening to this girl rambling about Sasuke for days now and it was only getting worse. The pink haired woman couldn't maintain her cool any longer. She wanted to hit the girl, but before she could even lift her arm or do something else she was stopped again, like every other time; this time by an arm belonging to Sasuke. He was having quite enough of the girl himself.

"You see! Why would he not want me?" Mitoko puffed up her chest, arrogantly.

Sasuke gave Mitoko a rather intense look to shut her up before he gripped Naruto at his shoulder, which made him look surprised toward Sasuke.

It all happened so fast, Naruto had no time to react. Sasuke pulled Naruto closer and kissed him full on the mouth. Naruto's eyes widened in shock and he turned as red as a tomato while he felt Sasuke's hand on his cheeks and a tongue pressing against his lips.

Mitoko also had shock written on her face as her mouth hung open, except her shock had an entire different origin than Naruto's.

Naruto pushed Sasuke away, who actually grinned in public, and looked away from him, trying to regain his normal colour. He was afraid he would remain red for the rest of his live. Sasuke had never once kissed him in front of others (and tried to use a tongue with it!); not on purpose that is.

The girl hastily stood up, gave Sasuke an evil glare and walked into the house and slammed the door shut. The message had been very clear to her.

"I do so hope she will have learned her lesson with this," the old priest said and stood up. "If you will excuse this old man, I am quite tired. Oyasuminasai." He winked at them and went into the building too.

"Sasuke, I-"

"Don't ruin it, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "I would like to imprint this moment in my memory." She grinned at Sasuke as her index fingers of each hand were pressed against her temples and she closed her eyes; like this was helping her imprint the memory.

Naruto was still in a haze. _What had just happened? Did Sasuke really do that in front of the others?_

He finally dared to look Sasuke deep into his dark eyes; there was something there… amusement?

"This reminds me of that time you two kissed in the Academy," Sakura said, her eyes still closed and a big grin on her face.

"Nani? I must be getting old. I didn't know you already had something back then." Kakashi sounded a bit shocked. "I guess it would explai-"

"That was an accident," Naruto cut him off to clear the misunderstanding; or so he thought he had done.

"How can you accidentally kiss someone?" Yamato asked; one eyebrow rose in question.

Sakura was happy to reply and answered the question with the whole story, which made Sasuke's grin falter, but it was replaced when he looked at Naruto after he felt his stare.

One thing led to another and soon they were recounting memories of their team 7 days. Grinning from ear to ear, Naruto stared into the fire. It felt like how things should be, like a real feeling of home; though Naruto had never really had a place, feeling or person to call home. But when it happened, you just knew it. It was just like what he felt when he was at Sasuke's place; he had that same feeling right now.

His tail began to swirl around in amusement, occasionally brushing against Sasuke's back. Suddenly he felt the urge to purr, but he didn't want to, not here, not now. He looked over to Sasuke for diversion.

The way the fire lit his face, with dancing shadows and light, was very interesting. In combination with him talking, that special sound of his voice, it was captivating.

He shook his head, this wasn't helping. He felt a purr 'come up' and coughed subtly to hide it. No one noticed. Phew. He tried to listen to what the rest was talking about, but the words didn't register. He heard them, but he didn't understand them. Slowly he began to feel sleepy.

Staring back into the fire, his eyelids became heavy. He couldn't help it; the voices on the background were like a comforting, sort of buzzing, lullaby. He closed his eyes. It didn't matter anymore he decided. He began purring. It was the first time he was conscious about doing it, but it didn't matter, because the moment he heard the first purr, he fell asleep against Sasuke's shoulder; still carrying on the purring for quite a while.

Yamato looked up as he heard the soft vibrating sound, first not knowing it came from Naruto. He had never heard such a sound. He looked at Naruto; it was kind of soothing and you could actually hear Naruto's contentment in it.

Sakura's eyebrows rose as she heard the sound and giggled gently. Sasuke poked Naruto in the shoulder, but he was clearly asleep. Still the purring went on.

"I think I could get used to this if he did so more often," Sakura said, looking over to Sasuke. "Does he do it a lot?"

"Sometimes." Sasuke didn't feel like answering the question as he laid his arm lightly around Naruto's waist to support him.

They were quiet for quite a while, listening to Naruto's happiness. Eventually the purring softly died down.

"I think it's better if we go to sleep as well," Kakashi said as he stood up.

Sasuke took Naruto in his arms and lifted him up. He really was very light. Sasuke knew last time he had weighed, the blond was only 45.7 kg; though Naruto looked no skinnier than before. He remembered that during a training session the week before Sakura had ran into Naruto and had actually knocked him clear off his feet. That day the training had been about 're-teaching' Naruto to fight with his new weight.

As Sasuke carried him inside, Naruto just slept on, not even waking when Sasuke laid him on the bed or took off his clothes. Once they both lay in the bed, Sasuke stroked Naruto's face once and went to sleep himself, his hands travelling to Naruto's stomach.

-oXo-

A/N: a shorter chapter again, but it was fun to write ^^


	14. Chapter 14: 10th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

First I want to thank you all for your reviews! :D

-oXo-

**Chapter 14: 10****th**** of August**

Naruto woke up. His stomach hurt as it rumbled softly; he decided that he needed something to eat. Crawling out of the bed, without waking Sasuke, he rubbed his eyes lazily and walked to the 'common room'. Strolling over to their food stocking, he looked for something he would like. A sudden urge for meat came up.

This was the fourth time since he got his tail that this happened. The first time was when he had been cooking at Sasuke's place and Sasuke came back from a mission. The last two times he had been at his own apartment alone, for Sasuke had been on a mission.

Like the last time he could feel the teeth in the corner of his mouth; they had grown. He had told Tsunade, but she couldn't do anything about it, besides it wasn't really painful, just annoying. But this time the urge began to grow stronger with every second; he needed something to eat _now_.

Deciding baking the meat would take too long, he took some raw meat from the backpack filled with food and started eating it. It was like a haze had clouded him and all he could do to lift it was obey to this one need, this urge.

When he was halfway a third piece of beef, Naruto suddenly realized what he was doing and dropped it. His wide eyes had turned red with slit pupils, whisker marks had turned darker and his nails had grown. He pulled up his shirt and saw the seal visible. It looked different again; this time the small swirls above the scribbling around the big swirl had become longer. It was like someone had scribbled some extra 7 cm of symbols vertically above the small swirls; like vines growing away from the big swirl.

"That can't be good."

He quickly went out of the 'common room' to the corridor, but suddenly felt a pull in his stomach accompanied with pain. He fell to one knee, gripping his shirt with one hand as the other was against the wall. He sat there panting for a moment as cramps ran through his body and then tried to stand up again.

He was just holding himself up to the wall when he heard a familiar voice.

"Naruto, are you sleepwalking again?"

"Ka... kashi-sen... sei," Naruto panted, still gripping his shirt.

"Naruto?" Kakashi was next to him in an instant and he saw Naruto's pain-filled face, fox features intact.

"Not good," Naruto said through his teeth and pulled his shirt up so Kakashi could see.

"Let's take you to Yamato." He pulled Naruto's arm around his shoulder and walked to aforesaid person, who slept with him in the same room.

"Yamato, wake up," Kakashi said quietly. Yamato rose up from his bed.

"What is it?" But the voice did not belong to Yamato. Sasuke was standing in the doorway. Kakashi put Naruto down on his knees.

"Seal," was all Naruto said and looked up with his red eyes as they narrowed in pain. He pulled up his shirt; Yamato pulled it off for him and he and Kakashi looked at it.

"I will try to suppress Kyuubi's chakra," Yamato said.

Kakashi and Sasuke stepped back a little, along with Yamato. He made a seal and the kanji '_sit'_ appeared on his outstretched hand. Wooden poles with animal like heads appeared all around Naruto.

At first nothing happened and Naruto just looked around a bit, waiting for something to happen. Then he grasped for his stomach and scrunched up his eyes and clenching his teeth. Immediately the wooden poles sprang to live and attached themselves to Naruto. He gave a growl in frustration and pain as the animalistic poles 'bit' him.

When he opened his eyes they were blue again, his fangs and nails shrunk and the whiskers were back to normal. He panted and as the poles let him go he fell forward.

Yamato put down his hand, the poles disappeared and he tried to catch his breath. Kakashi patted him on the shoulder.

Sasuke walked to Naruto and helped him up. "What happened?" he asked Naruto.

"I was hungry... so I went... to eat something." He tried to sit up himself and push Sasuke away, but he wasn't succeeding in either of those things so he let Sasuke help him up, to his dismay. "I… I felt this urge… the need to… to eat meat," he managed to say between gasps and slowly looked up to meet Sasuke's dark eyes.

"So?" Sasuke didn't saw the problem. He took Naruto's upper arms to help him to stay sitting upright.

Naruto took one last deep breath and was able to breathe normally again. "It became worse; even worse than last time."

"What do you mean, last time?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what happened next, but I was eating the meat," he went on, ignoring Sasuke's question. He leant against Sasuke's outstretched arm.

Silence fell and Naruto didn't finish and stayed silent, watching his knees.

"Naruto, what happened?" Kakashi asked softly, encouraging him to go on.

"I was eating the meat raw, more than one piece, and I don't even remember," he ended the sentence taking some breaths. "And then I saw the seal like this." He softly ended and indicated to his stomach on which the seal had not changed in the process of suppressing the Kyuubi.

"What do you mean, last time?" Sasuke asked again, his eyebrow twitching.

Naruto looked uncomfortable. "It was nothing serious. I just wanted to eat meat." He said slowly. Sasuke wanted to protest, but before he could Naruto continued. "I told Tsunade no baa-chan; she said there was nothing she could do and it would probably do me no harm." He looked up to Sasuke.

Sasuke considered this. "Still-"

"Before you guys go bickering all night, let's keep to the subject," Kakashi said as he foresaw a quarrel coming. Their heads turned to him as he said this and he went to the door. "I'll get Sakura," and at that he walked away.

"Naruto, you have to tell me these things, even as insignificant as they might seem."

Naruto, still leaning on Sasuke's arms, looked down. "But I'm just tired of this all. I don't want it to be necessary to tell you everything going on with me."

"I know." Sasuke looked up at Yamato and they exchanged looks.

Sakura and Kakashi came walking back in. Sakura had heard the sounds when they had taken Naruto in the room and had been talking. She had known something was going on but she had not acted on it, hearing Kakashi and Sasuke move probably meant it was safe. Furthermore if she stayed in the room, she could protect the girl, who slept in the same room with her, in case something had gone wrong. Besides that she probably could prevent a scene if the girl had woken up.

Sakura went to Naruto and sat on his other side. She started to check him with her pink glowing hands, the only light in the room next to the light of the half full moon, while Sasuke still held him up.

"There's nothing wrong with him. If I hadn't seen him I would have said you guys are crazy for getting me here." She pulled back her hands and looked over to the others. "He doesn't look okay, but I can't find anything wrong, not even a hint of the fox's chakra. This is weird. Did you notice the fox's chakra?" she asked Yamato who shook his head.

"Not at first. That was why nothing happened. Then I noticed a little bit of its chakra and was able to grab onto it," he told her.

"Then why has the seal changed? He must have felt something? And his face changed, you said?" She looked to Kakashi. "How did he feel? What did he do?"

"I'm sitting right here, you know. Stop talking like I'm not or like I can't understand," Naruto sounded irritated; he glared at Sakura.

"Sorry," she apologized as she looked at Naruto.

"Can I go back to bed now? I'm tired."

"What did you feel?" Sakura asked again.

"Just like always when I'm using the fox's chakra." He shrugged. "I don't know; it was really uncomfortable." He looked away from Sakura. "Can I go to sleep?" he asked his knees. He was leaning more heavily on Sasuke's arms now.

Sakura thought for a moment before she nodded and Sasuke, for the second time this night, helped Naruto to their bedroom. Naruto was so exhausted he could barely walk. Arriving at the futon on the ground, Sasuke slowly lowered him to the ground and laid him in bed; the blond was already asleep before he touched the mattress. After that the raven went back to the others.

"-but how can you prevent something if you don't know what- no… how it is happening," Sakura asked as Sasuke re-entered.

Kakashi sighed. "This is not good. Even if we would go back now, we are still at least six days from Konoha."

"We need to finish this mission," Sasuke said. "Naruto wants it and as you said it won't matter if we go back now or tomorrow. If he finds out we just cut off a mission because of this, we will be in even more trouble."

"Yeah, you're right," Sakura said thoughtful, wiping some hair out of her face. "But we need to keep a close look on him."

"He won't like that," Yamato stated.

"There's no other way." They all looked at Kakashi as they knew he was right.

Sakura nodded and Sasuke began walking to the door to get back to Naruto.

When Sakura passed the doorway she stopped and turned around, facing Yamato. "Oh, and happy birthday Yamato-taicho," she smiled and he returned it.

-oXo-

A/N: This isn't over yet... ;)


	15. Chapter 15: 11th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

First I want to thank you all for your reviews! :D

-oXo-

**Chapter 15: 11****th**** of August**

Finally the priest and his protégé had been safely brought to Iwagakure, the scrolls had been picked up and they were on their way back to Konoha.

Naruto stretched his arms behind his head, which made his orange and black jacket be pulled up and his stomach bare. The seal was still visible. He yawned and let his arms rest behind his head.

"Put your arms down."

"Hm?"

"Put your arms down, you shouldn't show the seal."

He let his arms fall, making the cape fall back over them, not looking over to Sakura.

"So, what are those scrolls about anyway?" he glanced to Kakashi.

"Like he is going to tell you that right now; we're still on a mission," Sasuke said.

Naruto groaned; he was bored and tired of everyone watching his every step. He let his head fall.

Right then a boy came running towards them and pushed his way through the group. He knocked Sakura and Naruto over as he pushed each of them away with an arm.

Sakura regained balance just before crashing into Sasuke, who still held her to be sure she wouldn't fall. Naruto was thrown into Yamato's arms, who pulled him up easily. When he was standing properly on his own feet again Yamato still held him at his shoulders, afraid he might do something stupid.

"Look where you're going!" Naruto yelled.

The boy who had run against them was a ninja from Kumo, by the look of his outfit.

"At least say you're sorry!" Sakura shouted at him, looking rather agitated.

Remarkably the boy stopped at that. He turned around and ran back to them, but apparently it had not been to apologize. It was because three extremely fast, black horses with horns came into view. They were so fast, that no one actually saw them move.

But with their speed came the trouble of coordinating while running, which was hard to do. They charged straight for the boy, but only one got him with his horn through the heart. The second nearly missed the boy, but managed to cut Sakura at the height of her liver as Sasuke tried to pull her away. The third horse missed the boy completely but pierced Naruto and Yamato instead, nailing them to a rock.

Seeing the boy had been pierced, which had caused instant death, the horses retreated. The horse piercing Yamato and Naruto pulled its horn out of the rock, at which Yamato slid off it, leaving a hole in his right shoulder the seize of a large walnut. Naruto, being a bit smaller was pierced in his larynx.

As the horse pulled away Naruto fell limply on top of Yamato, his eyes closed. All Yamato could think of doing, was lie his hand on Naruto's throat as he pulled him onto his chest; trying to stop at least a bit of the bleeding. He held his hand in front of Naruto's mouth; he wasn't breathing.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura ran to them immediately. Sakura, bleeding as well but ignoring it for the moment, pulled Yamato's hand away, opened the collar of Naruto's orange jacket and began healing Naruto as well as she could.

It almost seemed like blood was coming from all over Naruto. His throat could be barely seen, it was just a hole filled with pieces of white cartilage and blood. Blood came from his mouth and the upper part of his jacket was beginning to turn red instead of black.

Sakura tried to 'clean' the wound as fast as she could. Her left hand went to her pouch and took out a small transparent looking pipe. She laid Naruto's head back and carefully brought the tube in the leftover of his windpipe. As she finally pushed it past his shattered larynx she could hear air streaming through it that had been trapped in his lungs.

Immediately she began performing CPR, but she was wounded pretty badly herself. Her own blood was slowly beginning to become a small dripping stream as she hung above Naruto. Therefore Kakashi pulled her away and went on with the CPR with help of Sasuke, so Sakura could heal herself a bit.

Kakashi pushed Naruto's chest a few times and Sasuke laid his mouth on top of Naruto's, trying to give him some air.

After a few tries Naruto still wasn't breathing and Sasuke slowly began to panic. The blond was so very pale, especially next to al the red of his own blood. He didn't know if he was imagining things but he could almost swear Naruto was becoming colder by the second.

"Come on, Naruto!" he called desperately, not knowing what he would do if...

Finally Naruto sucked in some air and began sort of breathing, making a gurgling sound coming through the transparent tube. Sasuke was so relieved.

Sakura had finished healing herself for the time being and was now busy with Yamato as proficiently as she could. He was looking rather pale as well.

When Naruto made the gurgling noises of desperately trying to suck in some air, Sakura quickly went back to Naruto to try and make his breathing somewhat easier. Sasuke and Kakashi tried to stop the rest of the bleeding of Yamato's shoulder.

When Sakura was healing Naruto's windpipe as well as she could, she noticed Naruto's spine had barely been missed by the horn. She gave a sigh of relieve, but she had to focus on keeping him breathing.

As she had been trying to heal herself and Yamato she had begin to notice it took her much more effort than usually. The wounds were healing much slower and it took all of her willpower to help Naruto. She was rapidly losing chakra. This couldn't all be caused just by the wound she had. She suspected there was more up to it, but for now she did not have time to investigate it as Naruto's breath was slowly beginning to fade again.

She shook her head. No, she had to concentrate on Naruto. He had again tried to take in some air which had sounded awful.

Sakura finally was able to more or less close his windpipe and went on with the rest of his throat, but at least he was able to breathe more freely on his own now.

Sasuke came back into Sakura's view and she pushed him away, wiping some sweat of her head. "Not now Sasuke."

"Is he going to be-"

"Not _now_!"

Kakashi pulled Sasuke away and told him to go look for a place they could shelter.

At first Sasuke didn't want to go but at the same time as Kakashi was about to use his Sharingan he finally sobered a bit and saw it was important to find such a place and hurried away.

Kakashi began to bandage Yamato's shoulder as he saw from the corner of his eyes how Sakura was trying to remove blood from Naruto's open throat so she could see more clearly what was going on and better bandage him up later on.

She knew she didn't had enough chakra left to close his throat, so she had decided to use her last chakra well and fully heal his windpipe so the tube could be removed later and close his oesophagus that was lesser damaged than the trachea. Besides she had the feeling Kyuubi would soon help to heal Naruto, so making him able to breathe without a plastic cylinder was more important.

She was just finishing with the oesophagus and cleaning the wound as Kakashi appeared next to her and laid his hand on her shoulder.

"Is he okay?"

"For now," she said as she checked the plastic pipe in Naruto's mouth, deciding it best to leave it there just a little longer to be on the safe side; at least until they had moved him. The tube would provide some strength for his freshly healed trachea. Besides that, Sakura wasn't sure if she would be able to use any chakra to heal him now if something would go wrong.

"Good, then you should rest, before you won't be able to do anything at all."

Sakura nodded. Sweat was dripping off her face and as much colour Yamato had regained in these few minutes, the paler she had become.

"You just rest; I will bandage you and Naruto." Kakashi took some more bandages from Sakura's pouch and looked over from the still slowly bleeding wound on Sakura's side to Naruto's gaping wound which was called his throat.

"Okay," Sakura nodded as her eyes closed, "okay."

-x-

Two hours later Naruto lay on one of the two beds that had been pushed against each other by the owner. His throat had been bandaged and the plastic tube had been removed. He was slowly breathing by himself, making a rattling sound and sometimes was accompanied by some blood.

Next to him lay a sleeping Sakura in the middle of the beds and Yamato was leaning against the wall in the corner where the beds stood. Sasuke had found a small hut belonging to a hunter not far away. The hunter had taken them in without question.

Sakura had passed out after Kakashi had finished bandaging her and she had found out the horns had been coated with some sort of poison, which made closing the wounds very hard. This was the reason the healing had caused her to use so much chakra.

Fatigued she hadn't been able to investigate the poison further than that it would pose no further harm. It wasn't killing them, it just made the healing process very slow and with such a serious wound as Naruto's had been, it would have been fatal, if not for her training with Tsunade. Sakura wasn't called the best healer inside of the hospital for nothing.

But as for the conditions they were in now, they couldn't move on and would have to stay for the night at the very least.

Sasuke sat at the table with Kakashi, looking rather grim compared to his usual face as he kept staring to Naruto like he was afraid he might stop breathing suddenly. Kakashi pretended to be reading his green book. The hunter had gone outside to do his job, since a lot of new guests had arrived on his doorstep. He had refused Kakashi's help as he liked to hunt alone.

Suddenly Yamato moved his left arm over to his wounded right shoulder. This simple movement made Sasuke jump a little and Kakashi looked up at this. Seeing nothing was wrong and that Yamato had decided to take a nap as well, Kakashi returned to his reading.

"Did you dispose of the body?" Kakashi suddenly asked. Again Sasuke stiffened at the sudden sound. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the tense Sasuke, which didn't go unnoticed by the raven.

"No, he wasn't a nukenin; I think he wasn't even a chuunin yet."

"Hm," Kakashi was silent for a moment and then closed his book and leaned back in his chair. "I'll go sent a letter to Hokage-sama and see what to do with the boy." He stood up and left the hut. Sasuke followed him with his eyes.

When he closed the door Sasuke looked back to his other teammates, all lying on the bed. He had definitely not thought this mission would go this wrong when he had left. His poisoning had been his biggest concern. Now he only hoped Naruto would return safely to Konaha, without the seal breaking and being able to walk there himself.

He sure was thankful Tsunade had only wanted to send Naruto away with Sakura and Yamato on the team. They had been a lot of help. He had really thought he might lose Naruto as he had seen the hole that ran through Naruto's throat.

If Yamato hadn't been there to suppress the fox's chakra or worse if Sakura hadn't been there to heal him... He shuddered at the thought as he saw the blonde's bloodied jacket hanging over a chair with a hole through the front and the back of the collar, drenched in blood.

He jumped again as he heard Naruto cough up some blood. He walked over to the beds and cleaned Naruto's mouth and chin. Stroking some hairs out of his face and caressing his cheek. He sat down next to the bed, so he could watch Naruto breathe and leant against the wall.

He had been lost in his thoughts as he was woken out of them sometime later when he heard Kakashi returning with the hunter walking behind him.

"Let's get dinner ready," the hunter said.

-oXo-

A/N: About the medical/ physical aspects of this chapter I want to tell you I used mostly my imagination and Wikipedia, and did I mention my imagination? So please go with it, I'm not a medic.

And I guess I forgot to tell you, but I believe (and I'm not sure) that Naruto's apartment was blown up in the manga during the Pein attack. I don't know about the Uchiha grounds, but even if they are still there I don't think Sasuke would go and live there by himself. Would be so depressing…

And on a final note (it is becoming a rather long note) with this chapter we are about halfway into the story (in number of chapters).


	16. Chapter 16: 12th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

First I want to thank you all for your reviews! :D

-oXo-

**Chapter 16: 12****th**** of August**

The next morning Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi came into the hut after helping the hunter with his overly large vegetable garden in return of their staying there, to drink a cup of tea.

The hunter's hut had in fact only two rooms: a small bath room and a big room in which stood two beds, a small kitchen counter, a table with four chairs and a two-seater.

As they were chatting while drinking their tea, Sasuke looked over to the bed Naruto lay on and was surprised to see him with his eyes open, staring at the sealing; pain was written all over his face.

"Naruto," he said and stood up from the chair, walking over to him. Naruto only turned his eyes to Sasuke, without moving his head; he was sweating a little and still a bit pale from blood loss. Sakura hadn't dared to give him some blood-pills yet. Yamato was still sleeping in the bed behind Naruto's.

"How long have you been awake? How are you feeling?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask. Sakura walked up to Naruto as well.

It looked like Naruto wanted to say something, opened his mouth and closed it again, but not completely, without even trying to make a sound. He closed his eyes as Sakura checked him over.

"He can't talk, his larynx is not healed." She continued her check-up. "You don't have a fever," he was probably sweating because he was in pain, "Your oesophagus has nicely healed, so you have to drink something soon." She pulled her hands away and looked around at the hunter, considered him for a moment and then turned to Kakashi.

"It's alright, I'll leave you guys alone fer a bit," the hunter said as he walked out.

"Thank you," Sakura said before he closed the door behind him. She turned to Naruto. "I don't know why, but the fox hasn't healed you at all; not a bit since I healed you last time."

Sasuke looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "How come?"

"I told you I don't know. All I know is that Naruto hasn't healed a bit since-"

"-last time you healed him. I _heard_ you say that."

"Good, because I know that the poison is slowing the healing process, but even considering Naruto would heal at a normal speed; not even that has happened. Not only isn't Kyuubi doing anything, nor is your own healing system working."

"Probably because it never really had to do anything, since the fox always did it."

"Of course not, that sounds stupid," Sakura said, sounding a bit pedantic.

"Than what are you saying?" Sasuke sounded irritated; he wanted to know what was wrong with Naruto and how Kyuubi was involved in this.

As Sakura and Sasuke were bickering about this topic, Naruto closed his eyes and decided to take his chances and talk to the fox. Tsunade had told him not to do it, because he might want to trick Naruto into making things better for the fox. Especially since he was trying to become stronger, the more dangerous it could be to talk to him.

Even though she had told him not to, he had tried to talk to the fox twice. Both times he had just been ignored. So they still didn't know what exactly was happening with the seal.

_He inhaled once and there he stood, in front of the huge cage._

"_Yo,__ stupid fox, what do you think you're doing to my body!" _

_The fox looked up lazily from behind his cage door. _

"_Considering I'm still trapped in this damn cage, there isn't much I can do."_

"_But you are doing something!" Naruto shouted up to the big red fox._

_The fox stood up, took a deep breath and roared. It was too much for Naruto in his current weakened state and he was pulled back out of his mindscape. And still no information, just like the other times._

At the same time Naruto was talking to the fox, Sasuke and Sakura had stopped bickering and were now looking over to the silent Naruto.

"Did he fall asleep again?"

"I don't think so."

As Sakura bend forward to check if he was asleep or not, Naruto opened his eyes with an inhale of air and shot up. The gasp and the sitting up made his throat hurt and this was shown on his face. He made a weird sound out of pain and blood leaked from his mouth to his chin, dripping on his shirt.

"Naruto? What happened? What did you do?" Sakura asked concerned as she held him in a sitting position with one hand so he wouldn't fall forward and tried to hold his head straight with the other, as not to strain his healing throat too much.

"You didn't go to the fox, did you?" Sasuke asked sternly as he had seen something similar happen when he had seen Naruto try to talk to the fox a few weeks ago.

Naruto looked down with his eyes, not really being able to move his neck to nod.

"And?" Sakura asked.

Naruto sighed, let his shoulder hang and wanted to look at her, but stopped and instead frowned in pain.

Kakashi put his hand over his mask, thinking. "Pull your shirt up, Naruto."

Naruto looked over to Kakashi without moving his head before complying. Sakura helped him. When the shirt was up to his shoulders they could see that the vine like symbols of the seal were splitting and creeping all over his torso, reaching as far as to his chest.

"They are getting longer," Sakura said.

"The Kyuubi must be concentrating his chakra on it, somehow, and not being able to heal Naruto."

"But I can't detect any chakra of the Kyuubi. Not even in the seal itself."

"I don't know either, but perhaps he has found a way to conceal it or do it some other way."

Naruto swung a bit, leaning heavily on Sakura's arms. She steadied him. "You should lie down again and rest."

Naruto closed his eyes and groaned, but it sounded more like a splutter of blood. Sakura carefully laid him back on his back and covered him with the blanket.

-x-

Later on Sasuke was sitting at the end of Naruto's bed as Yamato leaned against the wall. They were having a conversation. Kakashi sat behind the table, pretending to read his book as he listened to the other two. Sakura and the hunter were outside, enjoying the sun.

"What if the fox really has nothing to do with the changing of the seal?" Sasuke asked.

"I was thinking that as well. Because when I held him down with the mokuton jutsu, the seal didn't change or showed any signs of being affected by it."

"That could of course also be because the seal doesn't react to the fox's chakra like that and your jutsu suppresses only the tailed beast. The seal is a separate thing."

"Correct." Yamato looked over to the sleeping blond. It seemed like breathing was still painful. Sakura had said she would try to heal him up some more in the evening or even tomorrow, since she wasn't fully healed herself.

"I don't dare to risk using the Sharingan right now; he is too weak. If anything goes wrong..."

Yamato nodded. "Normally I wouldn't have minded you do that and told you to go for it, but I see what you mean. The seal in combination with such a dangerous wound; it might be better to let him heal some more."

Naruto moaned as his hand went up to his bandage slowly. He was still asleep though.

"I can't stand it that we don't know how the Kyuubi is involved in this," Sasuke grumbled as he saw Naruto's face scrunch up in pain.

Yamato reached for his injured shoulder. "Especially since we know so little about the seal."

He tried to turn it a bit to get it loose, but soon stopped as he felt he wasn't ready for that yet. The poison was still present; he felt it inside him, like something that did not belong there. It didn't hurt, but it felt strange and somehow a bit uncomfortable; as if something lived inside his veins.

Sakura had said the poison would probably wear out in the next hours and would certainly be gone the next day. Then she would be able to heal him and Naruto more effectively.

He looked over to Sasuke as he was staring at his boyfriend. Yamato smiled. He had never though Sasuke to be capable of so much care and concern for someone. He remembered his first encounter with the raven boy. No, he certainly wasn't capable of concern back then. Slowly over the year however he had changed; Naruto had changed him. Yamato hadn't even known the two were together until Sasuke's birthday party a few weeks ago. They had hidden it very well from the outside world.

He looked over to Kakashi and wondered how long he had known about this and if he had seen it coming. He didn't think so.

It was as if Kakashi felt him looking at him, which was probably true, because he looked up from his book to look back at Yamato. They stared at each other before Yamato turned away and closed his eyes again. He was still tired.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke and Naruto instead as he saw Yamato sigh and close his eyes. Naruto gave a soft spluttering sound and Sasuke moved closer to him. Naruto's finger had wrapped around the bandage, gripped it and then fell limply again. The pain on his face left and Sasuke visibly relaxed. Kakashi grinned.

-oXo-

A/N: Somehow, and I can't help it, but the hunter is a bit like Hagrid in my head… and I can't get the image out…meh. On top of that when I wrote this chapter, I seriously began to wonder where in the movies Hagrid has his bathroom in his hut… -.-


	17. Chapter 17: 13th & 14th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

Ooh, a two days chapter… and there is a slightly lemony-ish part in there… slightly.

-oXo-

**Chapter 17: 13****th**** & 14****th**** of August**

Naruto sighed, making a gurgling sound as he did so. Kakashi was carrying him on their way back to Konoha. Today they had preceded their way home, thinking it was best to be there as fast as possible, since they had already lost two days. Naruto had wanted to walk for himself but after only a couple of steps he was already tired and had difficulty breathing.

Yamato and Sakura where able to walk home by themselves, but they needed to make some extra stops as they were not completely healed either. Though Sakura had had the smallest injury, she wasn't all better herself, having used a lot of chakra the last two days. She had healed Naruto up to the point he could move his head without feeling pain and making weird sounds. Talking however was still far away, she had told him (if it ever came back at all, but she hadn't told him that). He hadn't liked it.

Sakura was falling behind and Kakashi decided it was best to set up camp.

Sasuke sat on the ground next to where Kakashi was lowering Naruto, leaning against the same tree as the blond. Naruto immediately bowed forward a little and held his head in his hands, gripping his hair a bit above his ears, his eyes closed.

Sasuke looked him over and then leaned against him. Naruto looked up and gave a tired grin. Presumably the seal took a lot out of him in combination with his wound.

Yamato and Sakura were silent and also lay resting against a tree. Kakashi sat down against a tree opposite of Sasuke and Naruto, so he could watch them.

Naruto was again holding his head and Sasuke was whispering in his ear now. Suddenly Naruto looked up to Sasuke and eyed him, giving him a look of unbelief. Sasuke just shrugged and leaned back against the tree once more. Naruto stared for a while longer at Sasuke until he turned away and looked over to Kakashi, who just stared back.

Absentmindedly Naruto began to finger his bloodied collar. Though they had washed his jacket once, not all the blood had been washed out. He put his finger through the hole where the horn had pierced his jacket. He felt the bandage underneath.

Pulling his hand back he closed his eyes once more. He could smell lavender. He smiled. He could see a flowery field in the distance; yellow with a tint of red. A river could be heard and he began to feel warm and fuzzy.

Just as he wanted to walk towards the field he smelled sakura blossom. He felt someone touching his collar and he opened his eyes. It had really been Sakura. Naruto understood he had been dozing off.

Sakura sat on her hunches in front of him as she had opened his collar and was now beginning to loosen the bandage. She noticed he had his eyes open and looked up to him.

"I need to change the bandage, could you lean forward a bit, away from the tree?"

Naruto did so and saw that, as Sakura unravelled the bandage further and further the redder it became. Finally she finished and stood up to get another bandage. The breeze of the wind, though it was very weak, actually hurt as it silently rushed against the wound.

Yamato was watching him as Kakashi and Sasuke were standing a bit further away, probably discussing which route to take home. Sakura came back and Naruto saw how Yamato kept looking at his throat. It probably wasn't a nice thing to see.

Sakura was now carefully dabbing the wound with a lukewarm wet cloth. It stung and Naruto hissed at the touch as she dabbed it on a particularly sensitive spot. She looked up to him shortly but continued dabbing until she swiped it around the wound to take away the dried blood around it and laid the cloth aside. Naruto saw a pink glow and felt her healing touch run through him.

A smile appeared on Sakura's face. "You are finally beginning to heal by yourself. That's good." Though it was still a slow progress and Sakura could tell that the fox had nothing to do with this healing. It could be, now that the poison was out of his system, his own healing had finally kicked in.

She tried to look at the back of his neck and saw that the other end of the wound had closed nicely. There wasn't any blood on that side.

She fiddled with her pouch to get a clean bandage. Naruto watched her every move, more out of boredom than out of curiosity. She began to bandage him up again. After three times around his neck she pushed his chin up again. Naruto grinned. She finished up and pushed a bottle of water in his hands.

"Drink up."

Naruto took the bottle in his hands and began turning it around. He was currently in no condition to eat anything and had lived, until now, only on water and other juices.

"I was finally able to close the wound. It looks rather nice now, considering how it looked before, but it's still raw, so be careful with it. Otherwise it will open again."

Naruto smiled and mouthed the words 'arigato'. Sakura held out her hand and pulled Naruto up. Kakashi and Sasuke came walking to them and Kakashi told them to get going.

Naruto climbed up Sasuke's back and they were off. Sasuke smelled so nice. Naruto cuddled his boyfriend ever so slightly. His tail slowly swept back and forth.

-x-

They had walked for quite a bit now and it was almost dark. Sasuke had found a nice place to rest and they were now putting all their stuff down and making up their beds.

Yamato was still in no shape to use his wood jutsu, which meant they would have to sleep in the open. Fortunately it was still quite warm in the night so that was no problem.

Yamato and Sakura had fallen asleep the moment they were in their makeshift beds. Kakashi sat next to the fire, not really tired; he and Sasuke had been carrying Naruto, but that didn't take much effort as the light-weight he was these days.

Naruto and Sasuke were leaning against each other also in front of the fire. Naruto had remarkably regained some energy in the past few hours. He was again holding a bottle in his hands, it was empty. Playing with it he stared into the dark forest. He elbowed Sasuke, who looked up, and pointed to himself and then the bushes.

"Is something over there?" Sasuke knew that since Naruto got his tail, his night vision had improved as well.

Naruto shook his head, looked over to Kakashi for a moment, but he wasn't watching them, and then laid his hands on his stomach and pointed again to the bushes.

"You're in pain?"

Naruto shook his head again, getting a bit frustrated, but widened his eyes nonetheless.

"Oh, you need to _go_." Naruto nodded. "I'll go with you, in case something happens…"

Naruto gave him a look, telling him he was perfectly able to go on his own, turned around and walked into the bushes. Sasuke looked over to Kakashi, who nodded, and then followed Naruto.

After walking about 15 meters Naruto suddenly stopped, turned to Sasuke and grinned. He then pointed to the east and walked in that direction. Sasuke was wondering what he meant and just followed, he had only gone with Naruto because he felt like Naruto was up to more than just taking a leak.

After another 15 meters he found out what Naruto had meant. There was an onsen there, but it still belonged to nature. Naruto flashed his foxy grin.

"Was that your plan all along?" Sasuke asked, looking amused at the onsen. Naruto shook his head, but not very convincingly.

"You just wanted to be alone?" Naruto grinned, gesturing with his hands.

"Sort off." Naruto smiled. "Dobe."

They pulled off their clothes and stepped into the warm water. First they just sat for about five minutes, then Naruto moved to Sasuke and began washing him. Sasuke reached up to Naruto's neck and removed the bandage.

There was a beginning of a scar forming on his throat, which was quite unusual for Naruto. The wound wasn't looking very nice, it wasn't very smooth, but the scar it was forming into might eventually disappear like the rest of the traces of Naruto's wounds he ever had gotten. The wound was still obviously raw and red. It looked like it could open up at a touch.

The raven bent his head toward it and kissed a place next to it, Naruto pushed him back gently, shaking his head. Instead he gripped Sasuke's hair and pulled him into a kiss. Sasuke responded by shoving his tong through the other boy's lips. Sasuke let his hands travel over the seal. It felt slightly warmer than the rest of Naruto's skin. He followed one particular 'vine' all the way to the left side of Naruto's neck.

At the same time Naruto was giving Sasuke some sort of head massage, which made pleasant shivers run down his spine. Sasuke lifted a leg over Naruto and sat on his lap and pushed him back until he leaned against the edge of the geyser. They parted for a moment, Naruto making some gurgling noises, trying to say something, but obviously not managing.

"Hmm, I missed this."

Sasuke wanted to wait for Naruto to catch his breath, but Naruto was already back in action and kissed Sasuke again. Sasuke pushed him back a little and instead sucked on his earlobe. This way Naruto could still catch his breath.

After a moment Naruto pulled away from Sasuke grasp and bend forward, giving him butterfly kisses in his neck. Sasuke gasped, Naruto knew he liked that. So Sasuke let his arms travel over Naruto's body to his tail and started tracing circles above the tail.

Naruto parted a moment to gasp and his tail went up. A rattle sounded, but it soon turned into a strange purring sound; not quite what it should be, but close. Sasuke grinned, their erections rubbing against each other. They would both enjoy this. His other hand trailed to Naruto's front, going lower and lower.

-x-

Almost an hour later, Sasuke and Naruto returned to the campsite with wet, dripping hair and looking a bit flustered.

Kakashi looked at them, eyebrow curving up. "Been skinny dipping?"

"More or less," Sasuke replied. "Onsen," he explained, pointing over his shoulder, when he saw Naruto look at him.

Naruto took a deep breath and went back to the tree, resting against it.

"Wake me in a few hours and I will stand guard," Sasuke told Kakashi.

"Will do."

Sasuke sat beside Naruto, who let his head rest on Sasuke's shoulder, and leant back. They fell asleep almost immediately.

_Naruto was again in the daffodil field, but this time the feeling of being home wasn't as strong anymore. In addition when there had been one red flower before, were many now. _

_He knew last time __when he had plucked the flower things had gone wrong; he must not do that again. He decided to stay away from it, but it was hard. The flower had some sort of attraction to it, which was a contradiction he knew, for the feeling of it being deadly did not leave him. _

_He walked a few steps to it and stopped. No, he must resist, he would not fall into its trap again. _

_Turning around he walked to the river. He sat there for a while with his eyes closed, beginning to feel safe again. Yes, this was how it should be, warm and sunny, a small breeze through his hair, carrying the smell of lavender, which was a bit odd for he didn't even knew what it was. But smelling it, he could tell he was right, this was somehow familiar and he knew it meant safety. This was why this was his home._

_But something changed. The lavender smell disappeared and immediately was replaced by blood. He opened his eyes. The red flowers were still there, still being red, so it was not coming from them. He turned to the water and he jumped away from the river. The clear water was now a dark red and looked more solid then liquid; it looked more like dried up blood. What was happening to his home? What could he do to prevent it from becoming worse? _

_He should run, run far away from here and find a new home, where there were no red flowers. He turned to the red flowers and sprinted to them. He had to go through them to be able to leave. But once he stepped on the first red flower he knew it was not going to work. _

_Again black vines with thorns were creeping around him. He wanted to turn around, but the vines were holding him t__oo tight. They were crawling up his torso, to his neck. _

_No! He tried to pull them away, but they did not let go and instead pricked him and left gashes. The vines on his neck went through the hole in his collar, caused by being pierced by the horn of a black horse._

_His eyes widened. What was wrong? There had never been __a hole in his collar. He had never been pierced by a horn of a black horse. _

_Going through the hole, one vine reached up to his left eye and was now standing up on his cheek. He closed his eyes, panic building up to the max. Then he felt immense pain through his left eye and he screamed. _

In reality it was not a scream, but more something similar to a growl of pain. He reached to his left eye and bend over.

It was morning and the rest had been eating when they heard Naruto's cry of pain. Sasuke was next to him in the blink of an eye. "Naruto! Naruto!"

After a moment Naruto calmed down as the pain slowly ebbed away. He let go of his head and looked up, still keeping his left eye closed.

A shocked Sasuke was staring back at him and he felt Sasuke touch his cheek. Sasuke's finger felt cold on it, which was nice. He opened his eye and knew something was wrong even before Sakura gasped.

"What happened?" Yamato asked.

Naruto just silently stared at Yamato, waiting for him to understand that he couldn't answer. "Right."

Sakura handed Naruto a scroll and a brush. He wrote on it '_Not sure, had nightmare and woke up_'. He gave it back to Sakura and she was trying to decipher it.

"Not sure, had…" She stared at it. Sasuke took it and read it first before saying it out loud.

"Perhaps that's why we could not wake you up?" Sakura said. Naruto looked questioningly.

"We tried to wake you up, but couldn't. Thinking it was best to let you sleep, we already started breakfast," Kakashi told him.

Naruto's stomach made some protest against that and he grinned sheepishly.

"Let's eat and go back to Konoha; the sooner the better." Kakashi was beginning to get a bad feeling about this even though Naruto seemed to do better than before he had gone to sleep, which was rather curious.

After their breakfast they went their way back. Naruto had insisted on walking by himself. He felt too energetic for some reason, to be carried. After a short discussion between Sakura and Sasuke, Yamato had decided Naruto could walk, but would tell immediately when he got tired and would be carried.

After half an hour of walking, Naruto took Sasuke apart and held back a little. He wanted to know what had happened to him, how far the seal had spread. He tried to indicate this and, after some wild hand gesturing on Naruto's part, he finally succeeded.

Sasuke could just have activated his Sharingan and read his lips, but Naruto thought he just enjoyed seeing Naruto try explaining things this way. He mentally scowled at that thought.

Sasuke took out his katana and held it so that Naruto could see his own reflection. One streak of the symbol-vines had reached his left eye, which had turned red. Though it did not have a slit pupil, it had just turned red.

Naruto touched his cheek with his fingers, then suddenly let it drop and pushed the katana away with the other, having had enough of it. He was looking down in a way that Sasuke couldn't see his eyes and read him. Naruto took a deep breath and walked on a bit harder, passing Sasuke.

He reached Kakashi, walked beside him and looked him in the face. Kakashi looked down to Naruto, a bit surprised. Naruto grinned stupidly, shook his head and laughed silently. Kakashi was now confused. Naruto obviously had a private joke. He raised his shoulders when Naruto stopped walking until Sasuke was back beside him. Sasuke looked at Naruto questioningly.

Naruto pointed to his face, his eye to be more precise, and then over to Kakashi. Sasuke followed the finger back and forth two times, when he got what Naruto had probably meant. He sighed. "The eye."

Naruto nodded and grinned sheepishly, sticking out his tongue.

"Usuratonkachi."

-x-

Naruto was currently leaning against a tree. His right leg was shaking as he tried to zip up his pants. He had told the rest he'd needed to pee, which wasn't very odd since he had only lived on water and other liquids the for the past few days. Bathroom breaks had been common. But in reality he had wanted to take a look at the seal too, without the rest of them watching him.

The seal had spread across his right leg to his knee, which made it shake a bit. And the fact that his left arm was now almost completely black wasn't helping much either. Only his hand was still untouched and it was the only reason why nobody knew it had spread so far.

He sighed. He was afraid; afraid for a lot of things. What would they say when they found out the seal had already spread this far in only a day? What could they possibly do about it? What would Tsunade say? What would they do to him? Would he need to undergo a lot of tests? He hated tests.

But these were just a fraction of his fears. He could actually feel- No, feel was not the right word. He _knew_ the fox was changing him; preparing him. Preparing him to be transforming from a prison -a host- to his freedom -his own exterior- in which he could become himself once more and roam the lands.

It wasn't like Naruto felt himself losing his mind to murderous thoughts or something. He was still very much himself in mind. But his body was beginning to feel like that of someone else. The changes of a tail forming, of the bone structure changing and being able to see in the dark; these were just beginnings of something far more complex and…

Naruto shook his head. These thoughts weren't helping him. Like hell he would just give up his body to that damn fox. He would fight for it; it was his body after all.

The only problem was that whatever the fox was doing, he wasn't even giving Naruto a fighting chance. He was just slowly taking over; changing him. The fact that he felt like shit wasn't helping much either. The energy he'd had the day before, had been short lived, sadly.

Naruto's knee gave out and he let himself slide down the tree to the ground. He pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them. He felt pathetic the way he was acting now. He had promised himself a long time ago he wouldn't let himself consume in self-pity anymore.

But it wasn't only self-pity. He feared for what would happen if the fox did break free. Would he kill all of his friends with Naruto's hands? Would he slaughter the villagers? Would he hurt Sasuke? Just imagining himself slicing Sasuke's chest open was enough to make him feel sick.

Suddenly he heard some movement from next to him and saw Yamato walk up to him. He tried to smile and just pretend nothing was wrong, but the picture of a slowly-bleeding-to-death-Sasuke in his minds-eye kept him from actually doing so.

Yamato immediately knew something was wrong and sat down beside Naruto, unconsciously rubbing his healing shoulder.

"You're afraid, aren't you?"

Naruto looked up surprised. Had it been that obvious? He didn't want them to know and Yamato just needed one look to see it.

Should he pretend nothing was wrong? But before he could go against Yamato or confirm it, he spoke.

"You act like everything is fine when you are around your team. And though they certainly are not blind and know there is more going on than you let them think, they don't _really_ see that." He looked down to Naruto, who had his head on his knees, fiddling with some moss.

"You are afraid they will pity you or act different around you as soon as they know what is really going on." Yamato inhaled. "They don't pity you, they are afraid of what is happening to you, yes, but only because they want you safe. Especially Sasuke, I think he is going crazy out of concern for you. You mean everything to him."

Silence fell and Naruto thought this over. He knew that already, but still...

"You are afraid of what Kyuubi is doing to you," Yamato suddenly spoke. Naruto looked up to him.

"I will help you in every way, Naruto and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Sakura is already doing everything she can to figure this out and heal you up and Kakashi and Tsunade are thinking of ways to strengthen the seal."

Naruto nodded. He already knew that as well and he was very thankful for it; more than he could possibly ever say, with or without a voice. But they didn't feel like their time was slowly running out.

Some people say that once it is almost time to go, you can actually feel it. Naruto was beginning to feel like this. His body was rapidly giving out on him and was gradually being controlled by someone else.

Yamato laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I know you think this might be a lost cause, but you are a fighter Naruto. I just know we will find a way to make this better and you giving up on yourself isn't helping us."

Naruto opened his mouth a bit, closed it and gave a small smile. Yamato was right. Even though he knew his body was giving up on him, didn't mean he should give up on himself. He still had a live worth fighting for and more importantly, someone.

Yamato stood up and helped Naruto up as well. Naruto took a few steps and Yamato watched how he walked away with a slightly shaking leg.

"I know you don't like the way we keep watching you, but you should tell them when something is going on."

Naruto stopped next to a tree and looked back to Yamato, who still stood next to the tree they had sat against. Naruto nodded and waited for Yamato to come walk next to him.

Right before they would walk from the shadows into the clearing where his team was waiting, Naruto turned to Yamato.

"Arigatou." Well it was what he had wanted to say, but the 'ghato' that came from his mouth, sounded more like a deformed growl. Naruto was just glad that he no longer made gurgling or rattling sounds as he tried to speak or make other sounds. And Yamato had understood the gesture and gave Naruto a smile of his own.

-oXo-

A/N: Let me know what you think about it ;)


	18. Chapter 18: 16th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

Thank you all for your reviews! And because it's Good Friday and all and Easter coming, I thought some of you might have some extra time... And because I have this feeling some people might be thinking 'why is this taking so long, just tell us what's happening' ^^ So I decided to upload two chapters today.

-oXo-

**Chapter 18: 16****th**** of August**

Yamato and Sakura were almost completely better five days after the incident. Naruto's throat was doing much better as well. He could finally produce actual sounds and very short sentences.

At the moment, he was passed out and being carried by Sasuke. The seal had not spread much higher beyond his neck but his arms and legs had now been completely covered. His right leg was all the way to his toes covered with the symbolic vines and made it hard for Naruto to stand on.

He was shivering, not from cold, but from the seal; it felt strange, almost painful, like when your limbs are sleeping. He looked rather pale and his teeth and nails had grown.

Sasuke and the rest of the team were running as fast as they could to Konoha, though Sasuke wasn't sure what difference that would make anymore. What could Tsunade do that she had not already done? Unless she had discovered the solution to seal the fox.

An hour later they were taking a small break. Naruto woke up with a jolt and a gasp. Sasuke let his cup of tea fall, as tense as he was right now.

Naruto had become more and more sleepy and while he slept he had these weird dreams about the fox. Though he was slowly beginning to suspect that they weren't dreams, but really happening in his mindscape. He couldn't remember the details when he woke up, but the feeling of fear and that something was wrong lingered.

Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's forehead. "Dream?"

Naruto shrugged, he wasn't so sure anymore. Everything was so hazy. He was hardly aware if he was awake or not right now. His eyes were half open, looking around; one red and one blue eye, both had oval pupils.

His mind cleared up a bit when he began to feel rather awful (that was an understatement). He recognized where they were and said, "One more day."

Sakura looked around and smiled gently at Naruto with her soft smile.

"That's right; you'll be back before you know it."

"Not soon enough," he wheezed. His vocal chords didn't permit him to talk much more.

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke asked, trying to let no emotion slip in his voice. He succeeded.

"No-th'ng y- do... n't alr'dy... know." It had taken so much effort just to make this sentence come out of his mouth.

He took a sharp inhale as he tried to sit up a little, but it was too late. He felt like he had to vomit. Because he had been vomiting every few hours since the last day and still hadn't been able to eat anything, all he could do was dry heave. His stomach painfully cramped together to get out the nonexistent contents.

He moaned from pain and discomfort as he finished and Sasuke gently brought him back to lean against a wall of earth where they had put him earlier. Clutching his stomach he tried to curl up on himself, but since the seal had spread so far, his limbs weren't really listening to him anymore.

Sakura moved to him and held her healing hands above Naruto, trying to at least make some of the pain go away. She laid her own hands on Naruto's and he suddenly gripped her hand. She looked at him. He tried to lay her hand on his bare stomach but wasn't able to. So instead Sakura helped him and pulled his shirt up a bit to lay her hand on the centre of the seal. His mouth curved up just a little bit, though pain was still clearly visible on his face.

"Does that feel better?" she asked. He nodded and closed his eyes.

Sakura's eyebrows knitted together. This was all she could do lately. Since she had no understanding about the seal or could keep whatever was causing this to Naruto away. He looked so weak, vulnerable and defeated; it was so unlike him. Even his hair was not as shiny yellow as it should be. His one blue eye looked dull and the red eye looked more vicious than before.

"I still don't understand why I can't feel any of Kyuubi's chakra. How can he be causing this?" She had been thinking about this for over three days now and couldn't even come up with a single answer.

She then tried to simplify the problem. Sometimes it helps to take a few steps back.

"How can one do something to another, without letting the other notice he is doing something or involving a third person?" She looked up to the others. They didn't answer, they had been thinking about this problem as well. It wasn't poison; Sakura could not find any, or Kyuubi's chakra for that matter.

It was silent.

"Shino," Naruto suddenly said, beginning to fall asleep again.

"What?" Sakura looked at him, wondering if he hadn't meant to say 'Sasuke'.

"Bugs." His breath began to even out.

A few eyebrows rose; Shino? Bugs? What was he talking about?

But those two words, those two seemingly random words had done the trick. Sakura's eyes widened. "That's it!" she yelled.

Naruto was awake in an instant, sitting up straight with a groan and coughing softly.

"What did you find out?" Kakashi asked after a worried look toward Naruto.

"The Kyuubi is using all his chakra to make it very dense and is pouring that dense chakra in small amounts through Naruto, via Naruto's own chakra. In that way Naruto's own chakra is causing the changes. The fox has no chakra left to heal Naruto, because the process of making one's chakra so dense costs a lot of energy. But at the same time his chakra can't be felt either. It's like he is asleep."

"You got all that from the word 'bugs'?"

"Naruto is right, when you send one bug, no one will notice, for they are too small. When you send more, they are strong enough to do some serious damage, but send in the right formation, still not big enough to be detected." They nodded, seeing what she meant and impressed she had come up with the answer. She really was very smart.

She pulled away her hand from Naruto, who moaned sadly at that, and grasped a scroll and began writing. When she finished she looked over to Sasuke. "Can you lend me a hawk?"

Sasuke bit his thumb, made some hand signs and summoned a normal sized hawk. They attached the note to the bird's leg and it flew off.

"Tsunade-sama will know what to prepare. In the mean time I will start a simple treatment on the way back." She grinned. "It will not re-seal the Kyuubi, because I cannot do that, but it will slow him down and help you back to some strength."

Naruto's dull eye looked up to her, not really able to show any sign of happiness.

"Everything is going to be fine," she said.

Unlike before, Naruto knew she really meant it this time and he tried to give her a smile before he drifted off again.

-oXo-

A/N: I hope you understand a bit what's going on now.


	19. Chapter 19: 17th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 19: 17****th**** of August**

Team 7 had just arrived back in an area around Konoha and had gone straight to a safe, remote house. Tsunade was there waiting for them with the addition of a Hyuuga medic.

After the start of Sakura's treatment Naruto was still not able to move a lot, but he hadn't thrown up as much anymore and the fever had dropped, which had done him good. He did still look rather pale though.

Sakura had been sending chakra through the seal from time to time, but in a variant way than she had done before. It had disturbed the fox's process to compress his chakra. It had tickled Naruto, but otherwise he'd had no discomfort from it. Further he had become less sleepy.

Sakura had found out that while he slept it was easier for the fox to take over control and execute his plan. It had also explained why the Kyuubi had only talked to him during his sleep.

They entered the small house and Sasuke put Naruto down on a table in the middle of the one and only room.

Naruto wanted to try to zip open his orange jacket but he couldn't even lift his arm above his elbow so Sasuke had to help him. Sasuke took the jacket off and looked at Naruto as he sat in his shirt, slowly swaying from side to side. On his throat the scar was still visible and the seal came from under his shirt to reach over to his left eye with some small side branches. His arms were black from the seal as it reached all the way to his fingers.

Then Sasuke pulled off his shirt and pants. The swirl on his stomach had almost completely turned black. Instead of a black swirl, a thin white one could be seen; the reverse of what it should be. The rest of his body was completely covered in black symbolic-vines. It looked like he was covered in black henna. It was actually quite beautiful if you forgot that it was a seal that was opening to let out the Kyuubi no Kitsune; a feared demon.

Sasuke looked deep into Naruto eyes, focussing on the blue one, and hugged him before he helped him lay down on the wooden table.

Tsunade looked the blond over; her face showed she thought it looked worse than she had expected. Sakura came to stand on the other side of the table and the Hyuuga at the head of the table.

"Okay," Tsunade said, "Yamato, please take some measures to be sure."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." He made wooden, animal-headed poles appear all around the square room.

Tsunade nodded. "Kakashi I might need you when we will re-seal the fox. Please stand over there, just in case."

Kakashi walked to the end of the table, Sasuke just followed. Tsunade said nothing; they might need him as well. He was Naruto's anchor, the only person who could probably pull him back when things might get wrong.

The Hokage looked at Naruto and he nodded hesitantly. She knew he didn't want to show, but he was nervous and scared. She could understand; she was too.

"Let's start." They had already talked through the procedure.

Sakura laid her hands on Naruto's chest, the Hyuuga girl on his head and Tsunade on his stomach.

Since yesterday Tsunade had made, with help of the notes Sakura and Kakashi had sent her, a new kind of seal which would be placed on top of the previous one, and with that, closing it. From the moment Sakura had told her what the problem was, all Tsunade's findings and researches had made sense and could be put surprisingly easy into use.

Tsunade made all kinds of hand signs in the air, but slowly let her hands drop closer to Naruto's stomach. She suddenly stopped, made chakra appear on all of her fingertips from her right hand and brought them slowly on top of the seal. Naruto felt her fingers on his stomach, which felt surprisingly cool.

She twisted her hand so the swirl on his stomach would close instead of open and become a black swirl once more. She held her hand in the new position as Naruto began to scream in pain.

"Hold him tight!" she ordered.

Kakashi took his legs, Sasuke his right arm (standing next to Tsunade), Sakura his left arm and the girl his shoulders. That had been right on time because not much later he began squirming.

Tsunade turned her hand some more. Nothing happened to the seal yet, but Naruto's screams of pain were now interrupted by sentences.

"Stop it! Stop!"

Tsunade almost stopped right then, but then he said, "Go back!" and she realized he wasn't talking to her, but to the fox.

She was still turning her hand and slowly, very slowly she saw that the vines of Naruto's seal were pulling back into the direction of the centre of the seal. The swirl gradually became less black and more white appeared. Sweat was on Tsunade's brow, this was no easy thing to do and she knew that it was certainly not over yet.

Naruto's scream became louder as he wanted to move, but could not.

"Let go! Argh!" Pain shot through his body. It felt like someone was slowly pulling his arteries out of his body, toward his stomach. It burned and was excruciating.

Tsunade turned her hand a little faster. As a result the symbols retracted faster to the swirl. They were now at the height of his shoulders and the ones on his legs came to his knees. Naruto arched his back and pulled hard on his arms and legs to get loose.

Sasuke and Kakashi were now trying to tie Naruto, with some leather straps they had found, to the table; which wasn't easy as he kept struggling.

"Wait!" the Hyuuga girl suddenly yelled. "Chakra of the Kyuubi is becoming visible and it's travelling up his body."

Sakura laid one hand on Naruto's chest. "I can feel it." She poured some of her own chakra into Naruto, letting it function as a barrier, but it was no use; the chakra of the Kyuubi was just too vile.

"Mimi-san, help me stop it."

Mimi let one hand rest next to Sakura's hand, but to no avail. Suddenly they both retracted their hands and Naruto stopped screaming.

"Nooo!" was the last that came out of his mouth. Then...

"I'll kill you all! You will not stop me from taking over his body, I will not let you!" An angry growl followed. The voice had sounded so different from Naruto's; low and malicious.

Mimi actually stepped back and flinched at the sound of it. Naruto's voice was almost unrecognizable, but when you listened carefully you could hear it originally was his.

Kakashi was just finishing the last strap, but the presence of the Kyuubi made it hard to finish it. He felt anger beyond imagination and before he knew it he had pulled his hands back automatically. The Kyuubi tried to pull the unfinished strapping on his left hand loose, but Sasuke stepped in and held Naruto's arm in place. Kakashi strapped the arm securely.

"You will not succeed. I WILL kill everyone!"

At the moment Kakashi was finished Sasuke pulled back his hands, his palms were burnt as the file chakra of the fox ran through Naruto's body.

Sasuke looked up to Tsunade and saw she still had her, now painfully burnt away, fingertips on the seal. He saw how her fingertips were slowly repairing the skin to be burnt away once more. The diamond shaped mark on her forehead began to disappear. She had to pour a lot of chakra into the seal and heal her fingertips at the same time. If her fingers would burn too much, she wouldn't be able to send chakra through them anymore.

Yamato came forward with a raised hand as he let a headed pole zoom through the air, but Tsunade stopped him.

"Don't, not yet, I don't know what will happen. I'm not far enough closing the seal yet." She told him honestly.

Yamato waited. He was standing almost four meter away from the table and could feel the vibrations of the vile chakra over there. It felt like bad memories were shifting in the back of his head.

The Kyuubi was now pulling so hard on his binds that they were beginning to snap.

"Korosu! Kill!" His tail was angrily sweeping between his legs.

Even though everything in his body told him to get away from this dark chakra, scenes of the massacre flashing in his mind, Sasuke stepped forward to the table and activated his Sharingan. He was about to enter Naruto's mind when he felt Kakashi's hand on his shoulder.

"Be careful," he warned.

_Sasuke stepped into the ankle high water filled corridors. He ran towards the cage into Naruto's mind. What he saw made him gasp. Naruto was struggling with nine tails strapped around him and his twenty clones. Red markings around __their yellow, horizontal-dashed eyes from the sage mode they were in. _

_The fox was clawing at the cage, trying to keep it open as it stood slightly ajar. A hundred more clones were trying to keep it closed, while the rest of his remaining clone army was attacking the fox._

_As his hundreds of clones were throwing Rasengan after Rasenshuuriken, Sasuke noticed one more Naruto high up at the cage. It was the real Naruto Sasuke immediately knew. He was trying to fix the seal from __the inside out._

_Sasuke suddenly felt very small. What could he do to help Naruto? He looked over to the fox as it tried to sweep away some of Naruto's attacking clones, growling the same sentences he kept saying to Tsunade and the others, 'I'll kill you all!' and 'You won't stop me!' _

_Sasuke decided it was best for him to try and keep the fox away from the gates of the cage as he knew next to nothing about closing the seal. As he ran forward a ribcage materialized around him. Arms were forming and shoving tails aside as muscle appeared around the bones. When he came to the cage a fully formed Susano'o pushed it to close the cage door. He used the force he had gained in his run to push against the cage, which made the fox slip away a bit but not far enough to actually close the gate._

"_Sasuke!" Naruto screamed from above him. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Help you of course!"_

_Naruto grinned and turned back to the lock on the gate._

_As Susano'o pushed against the gate, Sasuke brought out his katana and electricity ran through it. Chirping was heard as Sasuke tried to slash some tails._

Outside of his body, Tsunade had trouble to close the seal further.

"Hahaha!" the fox's evil tone echoed through Naruto's mouth. "You won't succeed! I will kill you all!" His left arm broke loose and a fist was swaying to Tsunade's face.

But instead of hitting flesh it splintered wood. Yamato was again conjuring up more wood branches to keep the hand back in its place on the table. Kyuubi growled.

Suddenly Kyuubi's movements became less, almost falling still and Tsunade took her change. She turned the seal with a yank.

This had its affect inside Naruto's mindscape as well_. _

_The fox froze up a moment a__s Naruto had been able to do something with the seal and Sasuke was able to close the gate. Immediately Naruto began to close the lock of the cage._

_But the fox quickly came back to live and three__ tails appeared out of nothing in front of Sasuke and he was blown away, straight out of Naruto's mind._

He gasped as he returned to reality and saw Tsunade's hand moving to close the seal, Sakura trying to heal her hand as she did so, and all the splintered wood around Naruto's still and sweaty body. The seal looked like it had small extensions just as a few nights ago when this had started, but was almost back to normal.

Kakashi came next to Sasuke. "And?"

"I think he is going to make i-," but he couldn't finish the sentence as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto began shivering and spasms ran down his body. He began screaming again, but the agony of this scream far outweighed the other screams until now. Tears were mixing with the sweat on his face. His throat, not what it should be, gave up on making any sound. Instead Naruto continued to give a silent scream.

The fox's chakra came bubbling from the seal, giving it his all in this last attempt to take over his vessel. Tsunade turned her hand some more, trying to stop it by closing the seal. Her hand was slowly blistering at the touch of the red chakra. Sakura had already retracted her hand as the chakra had touched it. It was pure willpower that Tsunade didn't retract her hand.

Then suddenly Naruto stopped moving and fell silent, his eyes closed. Tsunade decided it was now or never.

"After I turn it for the last time, use your Mokuton jutsu," she told Yamato. She twisted her hand and turned it for the last time, all the way.

At once all kinds of things happened at the same time. The swirl of the seal looked normal again, and the last symbols were not completely retreaded, but were gradually disappearing. Naruto snarled and growled.

To make room for Yamato, Tsunade let go of Naruto as she and Sakura gasped as red chakra wildly flared around Naruto's stomach.

Mimi had done the same, but for a different reason. She went to Naruto's head as his eyes had opened once more; red eyes showing and a silent deep breath was taken. But she was not interested in those eyes, but at the area above his ears. At the same moment she pulled away the hair on that place, Yamato's wood jutsu clasped Naruto to the table. The red chakra flared once more before it was 'sucked' into the wood and Naruto fell unconscious.

As the seal turned the way it should be -a swirl in the middle with scribbling around it and eight small vertical symbols on top of it- the wood retreated. But it had been a little too late. Two black ears with red tufts inside, matching the tail, stuck out of his hair above his normal ears; at the place Mimi had been looking.

Sakura slowly walked up to Mimi to check the ears. Her hand reached up to it, but before she touched it she pulled back. She had to check him up first. So Sakura and Mimi checked Naruto for anything unusual and came to the conclusion he was fine and the fox was, this time for real, safely locked away inside the seal. Naruto was just exhausted and probably wouldn't wake up anytime soon. His chakra had been drained.

"It worked," Sakura said. She came back to his head as she finished and took a good look at the newly formed ears as Kakashi came to stand closer to the table, resting against it.

"I don't think he is going to like this," she finally said.

Sasuke came to stand next to her. "Another three weeks of house confinement."

He looked down at the blond, lying motionless on the table. His skin had blistered at some places, but it was nothing serious. Compared to Tsunade's and his own hands, that were burnt and red and raw looking, Naruto looked quite unharmed. It was amazing when you imagined that he had had the full blast of the chakra.

"Knowing Naruto, he will get through this, he is a strong man," Tsunade said as she sat down on a chair, exhausted and out of breath. Slowly her age began to show and Sakura walked up to her.

Mimi was still checking Naruto over with her Byakugan.

"It appears both his ears, I mean, both pairs of ears are functioning; though it had not been intentionally."

"Why would you say that?" Sakura looked over to Mimi, who looked back at her.

"It seems he has two complete sets of ears, everything included, which means he also has two sets of balance systems. I don't think that was intentionally," she said again.

"I see what you mean," Tsunade agreed.

"That might give some problems, but we can't be sure as something like this has never happened before," Sakura added.

"Does he need to stay in the hospital?" Sasuke asked, worry slowly disappearing from his face as his hand wanted to stroke Naruto's face, but it was too painful for his burned hand to handle. He bit his lip instead and brushed the back of his hand over the blonds' face.

"Yes, to be sure I would like to keep him there for a few days," Tsunade said.

Sakura looked over from Tsunade fingers to Sasuke hands. "And so should you, I don't think you will be able to use those hands for a while."

Sasuke looked down at his own blistered hands. He could still feel the evil chakra of the fox burning through it. How could Naruto withstand this all the time? Of course the chakra was more or less in check because of the seal, but that did not prevent it from running through his chakra system. When he looked over to Naruto he saw the blistering skin had already disappeared.

"Then let's go. I'm tired," he finally said. He sounded tired. They had been running for days now and he had been very worried over the blond and then this. He wanted a bed.

He looked up from Naruto to Yamato as he helped the Hokage out of the chair and towards the door. She really must have had a hard time, closing the seal. She looked so frail compared to her normal, youthful appearance. She could definitely use some sleep too.

After Sakura and Mimi had put Naruto's jacket and pants back on, Kakashi lifted him into his arms and took him out the small house following Yamato, to the hospital.

'_I sure hope this was the last of it'_ Sasuke thought as he walked after Kakashi together with Sakura and Mimi.

Sakura laid her arm around his shoulder. She had bags under her eyes and looked a bit pale as she began leaning on him. She had been helping Naruto for a few days now; first healing his throat and then helping with his seal.

"Thanks," Sasuke said to her very softly, but at the same time very clearly. Sakura smiled.

-oXo-

A/N: And, what do you think? Dissapointed, relieved, you already thought so?

Oh and yeah, Mimi wasn't named that way for nothing ;P (mimi=ear)

Furthermore as a warning for next chapter, I hope you are more or less up to date with the manga (up to 505); otherwise there might be some spoilers in the coming chapter…


	20. Chapter 20: 22nd of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

Happy Easter. I hope you liked the last two chapters. I didn't get a lot of reviews, so I don't know :(

So, there's a slight spoiler right at the beginning of this chapter as I mentioned before.

-oXo-

**Chapter 20: 22****nd**** of August**

_Naruto was standing in front of the rather small cage of the fox. It was barely higher than three meters. The fox had shrunken this much. Naruto looked at it and didn't understand why it was so small. He walked up to it and saw the fox bound to the ground by wooden archways, one around each limb and tail an one over his back and neck._

_As soon as the fox saw Naruto he growled at him as he turned his head into Naruto's direction. "I swear you will pay for this one day."_

"_Those are just empty words Naruto, don't believe him. He is sealed away very well."_

_Naruto turned with a shocked look to see a woman a little smaller than him with bright red hair._

"_Who are you and what the heck are you doing here? How do you know my name?"_

"_You wouldn't know," the woman said with a sad voice. Then a smile appeared and she stared at him. "Why don't you guess?"_

_Naruto looked surprised once more. How should _he_ know who she was; he just told her he didn't know. _

_As he kept looking at her, her smile became wider and she started sniggering. Naruto turned his head to the small fox lying uncomfortable on the ground and then back to the woman._

"_No..."_

"_You figured it out?" The woman asked rather cheerful._

"_You are the Kyuubi's true form?" Naruto asked and pointed to her. She started laughing out loud now. Naruto narrowed his eyes. This was confusing, his head hurt and he wasn't sure if it was the situation or something else._

"_I'm not getting tricked by you, I'll make sure you'll get back in the cage with the rest of... of eh... of you?" Naruto ended as he looked back to the fox and rubbed his head to ease the pain. It didn't really make sense what he had just said and so the woman thought as well as she looked at him a bit stunned._

_Suddenly she started laughing again. "Naruto, the fox is over there, bound by the seal as you can see for yourself."_

"_Looking rather small," Naruto added._

"_Looking rather small," the redhead repeated. "It seems you don't have your father's astuteness," she sniggered again. "I'm sorry for that." She grinned. _

_Naruto's eyes widened a bit. She knew who his father was? He looked from the fox back to her again. Could she have heard that from the fox or..._

"_Are you my-?" suddenly he got a lump up his throat. This couldn't be true, right? But his father had appeared, why not his... "Kaa-chan?"_

_Before Kushina could do or say anything she was being hugged by her son. "I've always wanted to meet you, kaa-chan."_

_Kushina returned the hug._

Sasuke walked into his room to check on Naruto. He was still unconscious, had been for five days now. He was beginning to wonder how long this would still continue. He knew that the sealing had taken a lot of energy from his blond, but that didn't make the waiting any easier.

Sasuke sat down beside Naruto on the bed and held out his hand to Naruto's head, barely touching a few spikes. He went to the ears, those black ears with red tufts inside, but retracted his hand before he could touch them. Instead he pulled down the sheets a bit so he could see Naruto's throat.

A scar was visible, but Sakura had told him that it had mostly healed. Naruto would probably have a sore throat and trouble talking for a while, but it would pass.

He sighed and stood up again. "Wake up soon, Naruto."

_Kushina looked at Naruto. "So that was what happened the day you were born." They had been talking for quite some time now._

_Naruto rubbed his head again, unaware of this himself. "Wow..." Before he could say any more Kushina interrupted him again._

"_I don't have a lot of chakra left. I still want to tell you one last thing."_

_Naruto looked up to her dark blue eyes. "What is it?"_

"_As I told you before I originally would have appeared here when you would try to control the Kyuubi's chakra, but that is not quite what has happened though, I guess." They both peered at the fox, still growling at them. If he didn't had that evil look and vile chakra it would almost be cute._

"_Then what happened?" Naruto asked looking back at his mother._

"_You have partly merged with the Kyuubi. That's why he is so small."_

"_What does that mean?"_

"_I don't know. You will probably find out yourself soon."_

_Naruto stared at her as Kushina reached out a hand and placed it on his cheek. She was slowly disappearing. _

"_Don't be afraid Naruto; I know you can handle it." _

_Naruto tried to lead into her soft touch, but her hand was vanishing. "I'm happy that I could meet you. Happy to see you."_

"_I love you Naruto." With that she was gone._

-x-

Naruto opened his eyes very slowly, his head hurt. He saw he was in Sasuke's room. He lay still for a few seconds, or minutes, he wasn't sure. He was still a bit unfocused.

The door opened and he slowly turned his head. Sasuke stepped inside, closed the door soundlessly, or that was what it should be. Closing the door sounded like hell to Naruto. He moaned in pain and his hand went up to his ears, but the sound wasn't dampened. Sasuke stopped mid-action seeing Naruto awake. He soundlessly, this time more or less for real, walked over to Naruto. It sounded like normal walking to Naruto.

"Hey," Sasuke said silently.

"Not so loud." The blonds' voice still sounded raspy from the wound and the lack of use.

He tried to close his ears at the sound of his own voice, but it still wasn't helping. "Why isn't it helping?" he whispered. Sasuke had to strain his ears to hear Naruto.

Sasuke crouched next to the bed and looked at him. "Naruto," he whispered as well, "It's not helping because what you hear so loud isn't going into that set of ears."

Naruto pulled up his eyebrows '_not that set of ears_'? What was that supposed to mean. He wanted to sit up, but when he leaned on his elbows he stopped. He looked a bit cross eyed and then vomited into a pail Sasuke pushed under his nose.

"You should stay lying in the bed."

A little bit of blood trickled from Naruto's mouth. He was almost sitting up anyway so he stayed like that. "What… what happened?"

Sasuke took the pail from him and handed him a small towel.

"The seal is back in place and the Kyuubi won't bother you again." Sasuke gave him a small smile. "But it nearly went wrong, the fox tried to overtake you one last time and he…" He inhaled once. "He gave you an extra set of ears."

Naruto still was a bit unfocussed. Did he hear that right, extra ears?

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke stood up and took clumsily a small mirror, which had belonged to his mother, from the shelf above his bed. His hands hadn't fully healed yet and his nerves endings were still sensitive.

Naruto took the mirror, not noticing Sasuke flinch as he took it, and watched... and watched some more. His eyes grew larger and larger.

"What the-?" he slowly reached up with one hand and touched the soft, furry thing sticking out of his head. He pinched it a bit, it hurt. He let go and tried to move it; it went up and down. He just couldn't believe it. He had fox ears, real fox ears, right above his own ears nonetheless. He didn't know what to do; cry, scream? He was to dizzy, he couldn't think straight anymore. He just wanted to lie down again and he closed his eyes.

Sasuke helped him lie back down very slowly and took the mirror from his grasp.

"Sleep for now. It will do you good."

"How long have I slept already?" Naruto asked hoarsely. Blue eyes lazily looked into concerned black.

Sasuke stayed silent for a moment.

"You were in the hospital for three days and have slept here for almost two days."

"Then why should I sleep now?" he asked Sasuke even though his eyes closed and he yawned. Sasuke stood up and went to the other side of the bed and lay down to the left of Naruto.

"Then we'll sleep together, is that better?"

Naruto gave a grin and not long after that he fell asleep.

-x-

Naruto woke up and opened his eyes. He felt much better, now that the dizziness was fading slowly. He turned his head to where Sasuke lay. Moonlight shone on his face, making him look like he was sleeping very peacefully.

His left hand went to Sasuke's face and he stroked it. After that he went further up to the hair and fiddled with his locks. A smile appeared on his face.

Sasuke suddenly moved and put his arms around Naruto, cuddling him like he did more often during the night in his sleep. Naruto thought that Sasuke still wasn't really aware that he did that.

Purring sounded through the room. It still sounded somewhat grouchy. Apparently his throat still wasn't fully healed and it felt as such.

He lay there fiddling with Sasuke's hair and admiring his face for quite a while. Then Sasuke let go of him and opened his eyes.

"I thought I heard purring," he whispered.

Naruto grinned. "You missed it?" he whispered back.

"Not really, you did it more often in your sleep."

Naruto stopped fiddling. "Even at the hospital?"

"Yeah."

Naruto blushed. "When others were around?"

"Not so much; mostly when it was just me. Though Tsunade, Kakashi and Sakura have heard it as well."

Naruto relaxed and began fiddling with Sasuke's hair again. "I can handle that."

Sasuke's left hand went up to Naruto's face and Naruto noticed his hand, slightly red. He took Sasuke's hand and saw Sasuke flinch.

"What happened to your hand?" Naruto asked quietly, a bit concerned and curious.

"I burned it, but it is almost healed," Sasuke said casually.

"Burned it?" Naruto asked as his eyebrow went up.

"On you," Sasuke said with a small grin.

"Huh?" Naruto was confused. "What?"

"Hn," was all that came out of Sasuke's mouth.

"Wait, has this to do with the seal... thing?"

Sasuke looked into his eyes and gave a small nod, but before Naruto could speak again he said, "Kyuubi's chakra is quite vile. I still don't get how you can stand it."

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno, either." He looked down and fiddled with Sasuke's hair some more. He looked up as Sasuke's hand went up as well and he began to stroke Naruto's locks. Naruto watched him, because he knew what Sasuke wanted to do. He had probably wanted to do it before, but hadn't.

Sasuke reached further beyond Naruto's fringe and carefully touched the right fox ear; Naruto twitched it.

Sasuke began stroking it. It didn't hurt his fingers; instead it had an opposite effect. He couldn't stop stroking.

"They're so soft; like the tail," he stated.

This time _Naruto_ put his arms around Sasuke and hugged _him_. The purring became louder. Sasuke now stroked the base of the ears, like one would do with a dog or a cat. Naruto held him tighter and began rubbing Sasuke's back unconsciously. This felt good.

"I guess things aren't so bad after all," Naruto purred into Sasuke's ear, which tickled him.

"Hmm," Sasuke smiled.

Naruto gasped as the scratching of his ears continued. "Sasuke~," he moaned.

Sasuke felt his lower region twitch at the sound of his name. "I missed you," he said as he stopped scratching, his fingers didn't liked it anymore.

In response Naruto cuddled Sasuke more firmly and his hands roamed over his back. "Hmm," was all he was able to say.

-oXo-

A/N: Naruto's ears need to be 'tuned' first and poor Sasuke can't touch Naruto as much as he would like to ;P


	21. Chapter 21: 23rd of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 21: 23****rd**** of August**

The next morning Sasuke and Naruto woke up at 8:30. Sasuke told Naruto to stay in bed, but when he stood in the kitchen he heard something fall. Sasuke walked to the hallway and saw Naruto lean on the small table, having knocked a scroll off of it.

"What are you doing? I told you to stay in bed."

"I've been in bed long enough. I just felt a little dizzy suddenly, but it's okay now."

Sasuke shook his head, but laid his arm around Naruto's waist anyway as he kept swaying and helped him over to the couch.

"Can you at least stay on the couch?" Naruto nodded, but decided that it wasn't a good idea and stopped, the dizziness wasn't completely gone yet.

Sasuke baked some eggs and they ate together sitting on the couch.

"You think it's all over now?" Naruto suddenly asked Sasuke while playing with his egg.

Sasuke looked over to him. "Yes, Tsunade did a real good job on the seal. I have no idea what you did on the inside, but I guess you did fine too."

Naruto looked back at his now empty plate.

"Good, because I was really getting tired of all this." He put his plate down and took a sip of his tea.

The bell rang and Naruto almost let his tea fall, but Sasuke was fast to catch it just in time. Sasuke gave him a quick look over before he let the cup go, stood up and walked to the door. Naruto heard Sakura in the door.

"Ohayo, Sasuke-kun. Is he awake yet?" she pulled out her sandals.

"Yes, he is in the living room."

"Oh?"

Sasuke followed Sakura to the living room. Naruto had slowly turned around, facing Sakura and Sasuke.

"Hello Sakura-chan," he said quietly, with a smile on his face.

"Ohayo." She sat down beside him on the couch. "How are you feeling?" she spoke softly, apparently she understood whispering was best for him right now.

"Pretty good; a bit dizzy, but nothing serious."

"Did you throw up or anything?"

"When I woke up I was very dizzy and disorientated. I threw up."

"That was yesterday around 15:00 and in the night you threw up again." Naruto looked up, apparently not remembering. "You also thought things sounded very loud."

"I still do, but since the nausea is gone it's a lot more bearable. Plus you're whispering instead of speaking normally."

Sakura nodded. "When you feel up to it I would like to do some tests." Naruto pulled up his nose and his fox ears lay flat, not pleased to hear the word test. "But it won't be in the hospital." Now his eyebrows rose and ears perked up. "I thought more about the training ground."

"That sounds a lot better." Naruto nodded, but soon stopped. "Ungh, still dizzy." He held his head in his hands.

Sakura grinned a bit awkwardly. It was silent for a moment.

"Have you heard about Tenten and Neji?" Sakura asked them.

"No, how could I, I slept for-?"

"They are dating."

"Really, since when?" Naruto slowly let one hand slide from his face so he could see Sakura.

"I guess it was already going on for quite a while, but more officially since Monday."

Naruto grinned. "I didn't see that one coming."

"But you also couldn't see Hinata being in love with you for over-" Sasuke started.

"Yeah, yeah I already know. No need to rub it in."

"Or Sasuke-kun," Sakura added.

"_Nobody_ had seen that coming; can you blame me?"

Sasuke grinned.

They talked on for a bit till Sakura had to go. "I've got a lot of hospital duty the next few days, so I will see you on the training field."

"Bye Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered. Sasuke just waved his hand once.

When they closed the door Naruto looked Sasuke in his dark eyes and had his foxy grin on his face.

"You know, I feel like going for a nice, warm bath," his tail was sweeping.

"Have fun," Sasuke said with a look on his face that showed no emotion.

Naruto grasped his arm and clung to it. "You know that's not what I meant," he whined. Sasuke grinned and Naruto pulled at his arm. "You don't want me to fall over and crack my head open; being dizzy and all?"

"Hn, guess not, but I don't think you're head will crack open that fast."

Naruto frowned for a second but then dragged Sasuke to the bathroom as he swayed from one side of the corridor to the other. Sasuke let him walk as Naruto patted his hand away when he wanted to help him.

They entered the bathroom and Sasuke let water run into the bathtub as Naruto sat down on the closed toilet lit, feeling dizzy. He now regretted swatting Sasuke's hand away and not letting him help.

"Running water sure makes a lot of noise," he said holding his fox ears closed against his head. Though he had the feeling the sound wasn't as bad as it was before.

Sasuke sat on the side of the bathtub. They just sat there till the bathtub was full enough, took off their clothes and stepped into it.

"Ahh, this is heaven," Naruto said, leaning against Sasuke's chest, finally feeling less dizzy.

"I know a whole different heaven."

"Not now, Sasuke. You know, you are a pretty horny bastard."

Sasuke grinned. "Can't help it, you're just so foxy." He folded his arms around Naruto.

"I know, in more ways than one." Naruto grinned, but it soon turned into a soft laugh.

"You're so right about that," Sasuke said.

"Then… if I'm the fox, what are you?" Naruto asked pensively.

Sasuke stayed silent for a moment. "What's that for a question?"

Naruto shrugged and leant forward away from Sasuke so he could consider him for a moment. "The raven perhaps?" he asked, while grinning.

"Sure, if you want me to be," Sasuke said as he pulled Naruto back.

"Don't you know the story about the fox and the raven?"

"I guess I don't. Tell me about it," Sasuke whispered into Naruto's human ear. A shiver ran down Naruto's spine.

"Well, I don't know the whole story either, but it comes down to this: the fox beats the raven."

"Probably because he is so… foxy," Sasuke said with a mysterious voice, his eyes half closed and his mouth close to Naruto's jaw line.

"Hmhm," Naruto agreed, his eyes closed. Sasuke grinned and kissed Naruto.

"You want me to wash you?" Sasuke asked after a while. Naruto opened his eyes again, trying to look Sasuke in the face. Sasuke looked back; both studying each other's faces.

"Sure, but I just want to say I'm not in the mood."

"But you were the one suggesting taking a bath together."

"Yes, like this. Sitting in it and talking to each other or be silent; just enjoying each other's presence. Simple as that. "

Sasuke frowned a bit. "Simple as that."

"You're the one that is always so quiet and passive when you meet our friends. This should be easy cakes for you, being silent and saying nothing."

"But you are different."

"I already know that, you don't have to remind me." Sasuke pulled up an eyebrow, as Naruto just continued. "But I guess being special in some way can actually be a good thing." He grinned.

"Why?" Sasuke was a bit confused.

"Because someone found me special enough to share his live with." Sasuke stayed silent. "And even now he still loves me and I love him." Naruto laid his cheek against Sasuke's chest, glancing up to him.

"That's so sweet of you too say," Sasuke said truthfully.

Naruto's eyes suddenly widened and he bended away, getting loose from Sasuke's grip.

"Sweet of me to say? Are you feeling alright Sasuke? Did something happen to you too? Where is the real Sasuke?" He laid his hand on Sasuke's forehead, making his point.

"I just tried to be nice. You always complain that I never confirm in words that I appreciate what you say." Sasuke swatted his hand away.

Naruto leaned back again. "Perhaps I was wrong about that." He was silent, then he said thoughtfully, "But I'm not sure about it yet, so don't stop."

Sasuke just stayed silent and laid his arms around Naruto again. Naruto snuggled into his chest.

-x-

An hour and a half later, Sasuke and Naruto sat on the couch again. Naruto was leaning against Sasuke, but this time he was holding his head in his hands.

"Being dizzy stinks."

Sasuke agreed by nodding.

"At least I don't feel like I have to puke, like you had."

Naruto shuffled deeper into his blanket and Sasuke; letting his head go.

They lay there for quite a while until the doorbell suddenly rang. Naruto, halfway into dreamland, jumped up with a yip, grasping for his fox ears to dampen the sound and almost fell off the couch.

Sasuke looked up to Naruto. "What was that for a sound?" He was referring to the yip.

Naruto looked angry to Sasuke, who held up his hands in apology and walked to the door. Naruto grumbled while getting back on the couch with his blanket and still grumbling as he folded it around himself. Great, now he yipped when he got startled. What other fox treats would he have gotten?

Kakashi came walking into the room with Sai.

"Yo." Kakashi held his hand up.

"Konichiwa," said Sai.

Naruto groaned at the loud voices as he lifted himself up from the couch to look over the back, letting his hands rest on the back of the couch; his ears laying flat. "Hey," he whispered.

Sai blinked a few times and opened his mouth when he saw Naruto, his ears slowly rising again, but Sasuke came to stand next to him and gave him a warning look. Sai closed his mouth again, though Naruto didn't think it was because of Sasuke's scary look.

"Sakura told me you were awake and on my way here I ran into Sai." Kakashi spoke softly, having received the hint of Naruto's quiet voice. It _was _a bit abnormal for him to be whispering after all.

Naruto wanted to nod, but reminded himself in time not. So he just turned around very slowly; his ears still halfway up.

Sasuke walked out of the room to get some tea. He had no intentions of them staying for too long, but had decided they could stay for a while, only because of the way Naruto had acted.

He boiled some water and got the cups from the cabinet. He heard Sai talk; probably saying something stupid about Naruto, for Naruto reacted quite loud to it. The kettle was whistling and Sasuke took it away from the flame underneath it.

It wasn't like Sasuke hated or couldn't stand Sai. He didn't really have an opinion about the boy in general, but he was sure that he didn't like the way Sai sometimes could say things just like that. On the other hand, they could be funny as well. As long as he didn't have to be alone with the guy, things were fine.

Sasuke finished pouring the tea in the cups and walked out of the kitchen. When he came back Naruto was in the middle of a conversation about some mission from years ago when Sai had apparently been hurt. His blanket was lying on the couch, forgotten, as he was swaying his hands. He hadn't been cold anyway.

The raven folded his hands in front of his face as his arms rested on his knees. Sasuke wasn't really paying attention to the conversation; he was observing the people in the room. He liked to do this: you didn't need to talk, just be quiet and observe. You could learn so much from just watching people react to a simple question or even to your own staring. Sasuke was a master at staring, Naruto had told him often enough.

Naruto laughed at some funny part in the story and Sai gave a small grin. Kakashi was just pretending to listen too. The jounin knew more then he let them on. He knew how unsure Naruto really was about his changes and afraid the fox would control him; how Sakura buried herself into her hospital work because deep down she felt lonely. And Sasuke also suspected he had known, long before Sasuke had let Naruto know, that he loved the blond.

Sasuke could see, only because he knew Kakashi so well, that he had been concerned all this time and still was. This was confirmed even more by the way he looked over to Naruto. He didn't ask many questions, unlike what Sakura did, but he was just like Sasuke and observed.

Sasuke now turned his attention to Sai again. Sai had always been hard to read, not because Sasuke couldn't, but because there wasn't much to read into. Sai didn't have much emotion (although it was apparently more then he used to show), but that wasn't the problem. The thing was that Sai himself did not know much about the emotions he did have or how to react on them; making him somewhat unpredictable.

Sasuke looked at Naruto. He looked happy; happy because his friends were just that- friends. They did not laugh at him, did not turn away and leave him, but laughed _with_ him; they stayed and looked him in the eyes. Naruto's ears were up again. Apparently his dizziness had subsided again.

Sasuke was happy that Naruto had not chosen the same path as the last time and kept hidden in the house, staying away from his friends. Instead he faced them and was cheerful; genuinely cheerful.

Sasuke's mouth curved up a bit and he noticed Kakashi was watching him. Kakashi's one visible eye showed he was smiling too. Sasuke did something he didn't do very often to anyone except Naruto: he gave Kakashi a small smile of his own.

-x-

Later that day Naruto was shuffling through the house, he was a bit disorientated, walking against things, but strangely not annoyingly dizzy. When he stood still for a short time everything became fine and he could move around. Especially when he sat on the couch everything seemed fine. Walking around was still a bit different.

What else Naruto found interesting was how sounds weren't so loud right now; it was changing every time, from loud to almost normal to actually hard to hear. He was getting a bit tired of it. Sasuke told him he was just adapting to hear with his new ears in combination with his normal ears.

Naruto finally finished his shuffling through the house and came to hug Sasuke from behind as he was making diner at the kitchen sink.

"Re-discovered everything?"

"I was just practicing my balance."

"As far as one can practice that."

Naruto grinned. "It smells nice." His tail shifted behind him.

"You just have to wait a bit longer."

"I meant you," Naruto mumbled in Sasuke's neck and hugged him tighter.

Sasuke turned his head to look in big blue eyes, looking innocently at him. "I thought you weren't in the mood?"

"I never said I was now," Naruto said as he laid his chin on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Hn," Sasuke turned back to the food he was preparing. He felt a hand coming under his shirt going up his torso. He raised an eyebrow.

Naruto started tracing invisible lines under the shirt over his skin and Sasuke couldn't suppress a shiver running up his spine. A chuckle sounded from Naruto.

"Is it almost finished?"

"Almost."

Naruto licked Sasuke's neck, let go of him and shuffled away. He knew how much Sasuke hated it when he did things like this to him and then left without finishing; which made it all the more fun to do.

He sat down on the couch and waited till Sasuke finally came into the room with two bowls of rice in his hands. Naruto took his and started eating like nothing had happened. He could almost hear Sasuke scowl at him. This only made his grin grow wider.

-oXo-

Next: to the training ground! What does Sakura want Naruto to do?


	22. Chapter 22: 25th of August

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 22: 25****th**** of August**

Naruto and Sasuke stood waiting on training ground 3. Naruto sat on one of the wooden pole's cross-legged and Sasuke was leaning against the same one.

Suddenly Naruto's ears perked up. "Finally." Sasuke looked up to him. "Honestly, I mean from Kakashi-sensei you expect him to be late, but Sakura-chan as well?"

Sasuke could sense them as well now.

"Sorry I'm late; we had some emergency in the hospital that I had to take care of."

"It's okay Sakura-chan."

Sasuke snorted. Naruto obviously was long over his love for her, but she still had a special place in his heart.

Kakashi opened his mouth to tell his reason of being late but was cut off by Naruto. "So what do you want me to do, Sakura-chan?" He looked hopeful; this _was_ a training ground after all.

"How about you fight Sasuke?" she grinned.

Naruto looked over to the stoic Sasuke.

"I'd love to," he said, now looking at Sasuke with a foxy grin on his face. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Good, I want you to fight each other seriously, but not on sage level, I don't want you guys to level the area here."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded. They walked about 6 meters ahead and each took a stance.

"Start," echoed Sakura's voice.

Sasuke and Naruto ran to each other and Naruto started with some taijutsu moves. Sasuke easily dodged or deflected them. Sasuke grasped Naruto's arm he was just swinging at him and dragged him in half a circle, grasping his shoulder with his other hand. He wanted to give him a kick in the stomach, but Naruto jumped very agilely over Sasuke. Landing behind Sasuke, who had not expected Naruto to be able to do that, Naruto was able to kick him in his calf. Sasuke jumped away quickly and made some seals to conjure a Katon jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu."

Naruto had become very agile and in combination with his lightness, it had made him very fast. So he easily dodged the giant fireball and snuck up behind Sasuke. Sasuke turned around as fast as he could and countered Naruto's blow. Then another Naruto came from the side and aimed a kick at him; he barely missed. Sasuke bended backwards to dodge the kick and made a back flip out of it. He threw a few shuriken to the Naruto's, who threw their own shuriken to counter and dodged the rest of them.

Naruto grasped a kunai and charged at Sasuke, his clone beside him. Sasuke took out his katana and used it in combination with his Chidori, effectively slicing Naruto's clone in half and deflecting Naruto's thrown kunai.

Naruto jumped back, distancing himself from the katana. Far enough to be out of range from the Chidori, but Sasuke had improved his range since the last time they had been seriously practicing. Sasuke made the Chidori chirp once more, which gave Naruto barely enough time to jump away.

Thanks to his new found agility he was able to jump into a tree. He made two clones, one immediately jumped back onto the field, charging at Sasuke, knowing he would not use another Chidori just like that. He used his second clone to make a Rasengan in his hand and they both charged at Sasuke as well.

Sasuke just destroyed the first clone and deflected the stabbing kunai from the second clone, when Naruto appeared behind him with his Rasengan. Naruto just missed, only scraping Sasuke's cheek and Sasuke grabbed his shoulder, swinging him just a few degrees around, which made him hit his own clone; making it disappear.

It was almost like they were dancing, fighting hand-to-hand once more. Naruto kicked Sasuke in the chest, which made him take a few steps back. Naruto wanted to punch him again, but Sasuke beat him to it and punched Naruto on the cheek. Naruto was thrown away for about 5 meters.

While being thrown away Naruto rolled over, sliding further on his hands, foot and knee. When he came to a stop he stood up, swayed a bit and fell down on his knees again, grasping his head and his ears laying flat.

Sasuke stopped at the end of his series of hand signs and stayed watching Naruto for a moment, his hands frozen in the sign of the tiger.

Naruto had his eyes closed and sat very still, holding his head. Sakura just wanted to walk over to him when Naruto stood up once more, his ears slowly rising again.

"I'm fine," he said. "Just got a little dizzy." Sasuke nodded and they charged at each other again.

By now Naruto and Sasuke both had cuts and bruises all over.

Naruto ran as fast as he could to get momentum. At the moment Sasuke threw a few shuriken, Naruto slid down under Sasuke and made a grasp for his ankles. Sasuke jumped, but wasn't fast enough as Naruto was still able to grasp his foot. Falling forward, Sasuke landed on his hands, making his fall into a hand-stand and kicked at Naruto.

Naruto couldn't dodge it completely, leaving a cut on his shoulder. He stood up and put his hands together in his signature jutsu.

Then he suddenly heard Sakura say, "Oh, Naruto. Can't you see Sasuke needs to get laid?"

"Urk?" Naruto stopped, his fingers still in a cross, and looked over to Sakura for just a second. But that second was all Sasuke needed as he pinned Naruto to a tree, making all the air leave his lungs.

"You shouldn't get distracted during a fight; you know it could cost you your life." Naruto looked up to Sasuke as he let him go.

"Did-… didn't you hear what Sakura-chan said?" he squeaked a bit, trying to catch his breath.

"No." Sasuke looked over to Sakura and Kakashi. Sakura was looking quite impressed and Kakashi had his eye in his amusing crescent position.

"What did she say then?"

"She said-" Suddenly Naruto realized. "You said that on purpose, didn't you Sakura-chan?" he said a little louder towards Sakura and Kakashi. Sakura giggled and Kakashi made some muffled noises.

"You could really hear that? That's amazing, I was barely whispering."

Naruto blushed, feeling slightly stupid. He should just have pretended he hadn't heard. Sasuke saw the blush and wanted to know what had made the blond react in this way. He had seen Sakura talk, but hadn't been able to hear much of it from this distance. However Naruto apparently had. Sasuke wanted to ask what Sakura had said, but decided he would sound too curious; he said nothing, thinking he would ask it later.

"Next time I'm going to bring Sai, he is so much better at thinking up things like that to say."

Naruto's mouth fell open. Kakashi was now officially laughing.

"Sakura-cha~n!"

Sasuke shook his head. "You're making it to easy, dobe."

"Naruto, can you go and stand 10 meters further away?" Sakura said in her normal voice with a serious tone. Sasuke had to strain his ears to hear her.

"Okay." Naruto walked away from Sasuke.

Naruto stood on a spot 10 meters away and turned around. Sasuke saw Sakura move her mouth but could not hear her. When he turned around to Naruto he was blushing madly, looking over to Sasuke.

Sasuke decided to go over to Sakura and Kakashi as Naruto walked away in the opposite direction. Sasuke stood next to Sakura, looking at her and Kakashi, his arms folded over each other. Sakura grinned at him.

"Raise your left hand," Sakura whispered. Naruto did so.

Sasuke was amazed. Naruto was standing almost 40 meters away and could hear _that_! Naruto turned around and walked up to 60 meters distance.

"Make a Bunshin," Sakura whispered again. They could see Naruto's ears twitch and tilted his head to the side, but he didn't do anything else. "Make a Bunshin." This time she spoke with a normal voice.

Naruto put his hands together and made a Bunshin. They both walked into the tree line.

"Disperse the clone," she said with the same volume.

Naruto and the clone looked at each other, probably talking about what they thought they had heard. "Disperse the clone." Sakura said a little louder.

Naruto pointed to the clone, or the other way around Sakura couldn't tell, until the pointing one went up in smoke. Naruto turned around to walk further; they couldn't see him anymore through the trees.

"Now that he's gone, let's hurry and go have something to eat. I haven't been to Ichiraku ramen in a while," Kakashi said. All Sasuke and Sakura had to do was look up to Kakashi with their raised eyebrows as Naruto was already next to him.

"Ahh, I had hoped you wouldn't have heard that."

Naruto grinned. "I almost didn't." Naruto eyes became thin lines and his smile became wider, his hands behind his head, ears up straight. "It's your treat then."

"You mean you are actually coming without cape or…" Sakura pointed to his ears.

Naruto hadn't brought his cape with him, coming here early in the morning. Naruto looked down for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess it doesn't matter anymore. People will find out anyway. I… I don't care what…" But he couldn't finish that sentence because it wasn't what he really felt. He _did_ care about what people thought of him. He wanted their respect and to show them he would be Hokage one day.

He looked up again. "Besides, I don't want to walk around looking like Shino."

Sakura grinned and walked up to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. He flushed a slight red at that.

"You've grown Naruto." She grasped his hand and pulled him with her. "Let's go, I'm starving."

-x-

They were walking to the Ichiraku bar. Naruto, despite what he had just said, had his ears flat on his head and looked quite uncomfortable. Fortunately Sakura still hadn't let him go and had even hooked up her arm in his, which gave him enough courage to walk on. Sasuke and Kakashi followed them to the food stand.

Entering the ramen-bar, Teuchi greeted them. "Naruto, it's been a long time."

"Well, yeah, you know." He waved his hand a bit, his ears still flat.

"I heard," the older man said.

Ayame turned around and saw Naruto, or more precisely what was different about him.

"Oh my, they are so cute." She leaned over the counter. "Can I touch them, Naruto?" She smiled gently at him.

"I-I guess its fine." He looked down to his hands, embarrassed, waiting for her hands to touch his ears. However nothing happened.

"Naruto." He looked up to her. "You can just say 'no', next time." Her smile was still there. "Say, Sasuke-san, you should let him come more, I'm beginning to think we are losing our best customer. How in the world you taught him to eat vegetables, is beyond me." She shook her head and went to help her father.

"I was wondering the same," Kakashi said. "All those times I brought him veggies; and all they ever did was go to waste and die."

"You brought Naruto vegetables?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that was quite annoying, threatening me to eat them." Naruto shook his head as he remembered it.

"Then what made _you_ able to do it?" Sakura asked Sasuke.

"I just gave it to him."

"And he just ate it?" Sakura asked, not believing him.

"First I didn't, but Sasuke kept hiding the ramen," Naruto said, giving Sasuke an angry look.

"I told you I couldn't stand the smell of ramen in the morning; I had warned you."

"I usually don't eat ramen in the morning," Naruto said a bit hurt, like they thought he ate ramen all day long. Well it was almost true, but still.

Sasuke shrugged.

Teuchi handed them their orders and that was the end of the topic.

"Damn, I missed this." Naruto grinned, wagging his tail. Sasuke looked over as Naruto put more ramen in his mouth.

"He's going to purr," he said and indeed just as Sasuke finished his sentence he was proven right.

"Dammit, I hate it when you do that." Naruto, still purring, looked to Sasuke with a frown on his face.

"You're just predictable when it comes to that."

"Just let me enjoy this!" Sasuke grinned as he took another bite and let Naruto eat in peace, purring and all.

Teuchi and Ayame smiled, feeling delighted that someone could show his appreciation for their food in such a way.

-x-

Finishing his second bowl of ramen Naruto looked up to the others. They had finished as well and they stood up. Kakashi paid and they said their goodbyes to the owner of the ramen stand and his daughter.

"What are we going to do now?" Naruto asked.

Being outside the ramen bar he looked around skittishly again. Sasuke put his arm around Naruto's shoulders. They looked each other in the eyes and Naruto grinned. This time his ears weren't flat, not straight up either, but more in the middle.

"You could put up a Henge," Sasuke told Naruto.

"I know." Naruto hadn't thought it was necessarily to put up a Henge when he'd only had a tail he could just cover up with a cape. The ears however were harder to cover and he didn't like wearing a hat or something.

"Then why don't you?" Sakura asked.

"I'm gonna be Hokage one day," he said proudly, standing straight and his ears going up again. "I don't want to put up a Henge every time I walk around the village when that time comes. People deserve to know who their Hokage really is, who they trust their lives with." He looked up to the Hokage monument.

"Doesn't mean you can't put up a Henge for now and gradually lift it."

"Or at least until you are more comfortable with yourself." Sasuke made Naruto stop walking and looked him straight in his eyes, which seemed to reflect the blue sky above. Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds, looking back, before he looked to Sakura and Kakashi.

"Maybe." He began walking again, taking Sasuke with him. "But we are almost back at the training ground. I think I can manage until then."

Sasuke hugged Naruto a bit tighter as they walked to their training ground. Sakura and Kakashi following.

-oXo-

Next:… I'm not going to tell, haha


	23. Chapter 23: 1st of September

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

So… this is a lemon chapter (you waited long enough for it). I found it hard to write and it probably isn't that great, but I tried. So if it's not to your liking, you are free to use your imagination to improve it ^^ I put the lemon part between the -x- if you want to skip it.

-oXo-

**Chapter 23: 1****st**** of September**

Sasuke arrived home early from his mission and as he opened the door he could smell food; Naruto was cooking. Although Naruto probably wasn't the best chef, Sasuke liked his cooking, or he had just become used to it.

When he entered the kitchen he saw the table was already set and Naruto was just placing the last pan on the table.

He grinned at Sasuke. "Have a seat."

Sasuke complied and they began eating. Sasuke was very silent, even more than usual, so Naruto decided to start a conversation.

"So how was your mission?"

"Hn," was Sasuke's answer.

But Naruto soon noticed all of his answers were that short and Naruto wondered if the mission had gone wrong. Knowing Sasuke would not appreciate to be pushed about it when he was in such a mood, Naruto hoped it would just pass by. He had planned this evening and it would be nicer if it worked out the first time. He didn't know if he had enough courage to do it once more (without furiously blushing all night, he was sure he would).

Finishing diner, Sasuke and Naruto did the dishes and then sat on the couch. Naruto snuggled into Sasuke, but it wasn't returned. Naruto was somewhat disappointed.

As they were watching a movie on the television, Sasuke suddenly began to grumble. Naruto knew this to be the point Sasuke wanted to talk about his mission. Sometimes this point came only minutes after he entered the apartment, other times it took him days. Naruto was glad it had only taken him a few hours this time.

"What happened?" he asked.

Sasuke looked at him. "That stupid client; he was so stubborn and annoying. He didn't even see that it caused the mission to fail. I can't believe he blamed us for it. After all that… what we did for him."

Naruto knew Sasuke wouldn't get so angry just over a failed mission. Sasuke had probably done something that he thought was quite embarrassing. He was grumbling about the fact he had done it and it had been a waste of his time and pride. Naruto grinned, but made sure Sasuke could not see it, so he hugged him and began tracing circles on his back.

"At least now you know he probably won't ask you to come for another mission anymore." Sasuke had been specifically asked for this mission, Naruto remembered. Sasuke grumbled some more and silence fell again.

After a minute or so Sasuke loosened up and put his arms around Naruto, stroking his hair. Naruto wiggled his tail which finally made Sasuke's mouth curve up a little.

The film ended and Sasuke stood up to walk to the toilet. Naruto stood up as well, turned off the television and walked over to their bedroom. On his way he stopped in the hall and took something from his jacket. When he was in the bedroom he looked over to the bathroom door, which was locked and walked stealthily towards Sasuke's nightstand and put the objects in his drawer.

He was nervous. It had been already a week since Sakura made him stop mid-action telling him Sasuke needed to get laid. Of course Naruto had already known Sasuke wanted it (for quite a long time, he added mentally), but he himself hadn't been ready yet. So he thought about it all week and began to feel this was something he would like to do as well; didn't make doing the preparations any easier. After dinner he had though it might be better to do it some other time, but he had a strong will and had told himself to do it.

He heard Sasuke flush the toilet and he quickly pulled out his pants and shirt and lay down in bed. Sasuke entered the room and stopped.

"Don't you need to brush your teeth first?" he asked.

Naruto mentally slapped his face. Of course, only Sasuke would make a point out of something like that.

"Sure," he said and went to the bedroom hastily.

Sasuke watched him. "Probably some new fox thing or something," he mumbled, shaking his head.

Luckily for him Naruto was too nervous to actually hear it as he was trying to get the toothpaste on his brush. He had thought he had ruined things and Sasuke might be on to him now.

When he entered the bedroom a few minutes later, with a fresh breath, and closed the bathroom door he saw everything was okay. Sasuke was already lying in bed, finishing his report on the mission and laid it aside. Naruto began purring and dived into the bed, cuddling Sasuke. Sasuke gave a grin and put his arms around his favourite blond.

Naruto started giving Sasuke kisses around his shoulders and neck. Sasuke just laid still, his eyes closed in pleasure. A hand slid down over his back, tickling his spine. The other hand rested on his chest. Sasuke took a short inhale and moved his own hand to Naruto's head, stroking his hair and ears.

Every first time Sasuke touched his ears Naruto twitched them automatically, but after a few touches he held them still. Sasuke's other hand went over the scar on Naruto's neck and slid down his chest to his stomach. He felt it become a bit warmer, but this time he knew that nothing was wrong. Lately the seal would appear if Naruto felt aroused.

Naruto intensified the kissing and Sasuke felt something stir in his stomach. He pulled Naruto away from his neck and began kissing him on the mouth, tongues fighting each other.

-x-

Sasuke felt Naruto's erection against his. His hand went down and unbuttoned Naruto's tail and pulled his boxers down clumsily. Naruto helped him and followed doing the same to his.

Sasuke grasped Naruto's erection and began stroking it. Naruto wavered at the touch but soon recovered and rolled on top of Sasuke, doing the same to him. Both panting and kissing at the same time; this was pleasure. Sasuke knew he'd to come and his breath hitched as he felt an explosion of butterflies.

A moment later Naruto fell on top of Sasuke, and they lay both panting.

They just lay there; not moving from each other as Naruto's purring went on. Naruto was collecting his courage; he would do this, he had prepared for it and would do it tonight.

After he had caught his breath again and his courage, he rolled both Sasuke and himself around over to Sasuke's side of the bed. Sasuke's eyebrows went up slightly. Naruto wiggled a bit under him, which did some nice things to his lower region once again.

"Can you open the drawer and get something?" Naruto asked, being able to betray nothing on his face.

Sasuke reached over and opened his drawer, wondering what Naruto wanted from _his_ drawer. He let his hand wonder around inside it.

"What is it you-," suddenly he stopped when he felt something that didn't belong there. He gripped it and pulled out some lube and condoms. This time his eyebrows went up higher.

"Are you sure?"

Naruto nodded, blushing ever so slightly. "Yeah; it's something we both want."

Sasuke's face supported a small smile. He began kissing Naruto, going lower and lower. Arriving all the way down, he was ready to prepare Naruto, who wasn't very enthusiastic about this part.

Finishing the preparation on both Naruto and himself, Sasuke situated himself in front of Naruto. They both had never done this before and were a bit nervous. Sasuke looked up one more time and Naruto nodded. Sasuke pushed himself slowly into Naruto, who had a most uncomfortable look on his face.

Finally ready he resituated himself once more and began slowly pulling out and pushing back in. This felt good; Sasuke moaned as Naruto gave a small whimper, which Sasuke did not notice.

Slowly Sasuke took up the pace. Naruto tried to smile a bit, but did not really succeed, until Sasuke twisted a bit and hit something wonderful. Naruto arched his back and Sasuke picked up the pace once more, he couldn't really control himself anymore. He had wanted this for quite a while now (dreamt about it), but had said nothing to Naruto. He wanted Naruto to really want this as well, not because he'd pushed him into doing it.

But for a long time nothing pleasurable happened anymore for Naruto in that newly found region. Partly because they were still a little nervous, but frankly this was their first time, not everything works out that wonderful the first time. Instead Sasuke took Naruto's erection in his hand and moved his hand in the same rhythm as his body, as he tried to hit his prostate once more.

Eventually Naruto came and Sasuke soon after that. He pulled out and collapsed on top of Naruto.

"Thank you," was all he could say, before they both drifted off.

-x-

Sasuke woke up in the middle of the night, lying on top of Naruto. He felt sticky from more things than just sweat. He decided he wanted a shower. Slowly standing up, Naruto opened his eyes.

"What ya doing?" he asked drowsily.

Sasuke walked to the bathroom door. Naruto was now sitting up, with a painful face, his eyes still half closed.

"Taking a shower, you want to come?"

Naruto nodded and stood up, stiffly, and walked rigidly after Sasuke. Sasuke said nothing, knowing Naruto would want nothing to do with him ever again if he said something about it now. He just hoped Kakashi and Sakura wouldn't notice the next morning during training.

He looked over at Naruto as he stumbled into the bathroom. Sasuke sighed; no, that would be a miracle, he thought.

Putting on the shower he went to stand under it. Naruto followed and folded his arms around Sasuke's stomach, hugging him from behind. His head on Sasuke's shoulder and his eyes closed. Sasuke wondered if he was even awake.

They stood there like this for a while, till Sasuke pried himself lose from Naruto's arms to wash.

When Sasuke turned around after he finished, he saw Naruto still standing there, eyes closed. Sasuke thought he looked like a drowned dog… better said, like a drowned fox.

Sasuke dragged Naruto to the centre of the shower and started washing him. Naruto was helpless when he was woken up in the middle of the night. Unless on missions, then he was alert in seconds, but at home… you could better let him stay in bed. Sasuke was once again proven right as Naruto didn't even react when he pulled his tail softly.

Finishing, he pushed Naruto out of the shower and gave him a towel. Fortunately Naruto did dry himself off, probably because he got cold.

Giving him some clean underwear, Sasuke directed Naruto back to bed; all the while hoping that Naruto's stiff walk would miraculously be gone the next day... Or perhaps that Kakashi had gone blind. Maybe it was better if he just lost his voice.

Sasuke was just thinking of ways to help a hand with that idea when Naruto, who already lay in bed, pulled his shirt to follow him into the bed. Stepping in bed, Naruto rolled on his stomach and began snoring slightly.

Sasuke yawned; he would see how things turned out tomorrow morning.

-oXo-

A/N: I'm sorry if you are disappointed, but I didn't imagine that their first time would be all wonderful and perfect and glorious (like in most fanfics); I think they are both a bit nervous about this.


	24. Chapter 24: 2nd of September

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 24: 2****nd**** of September **

Sasuke was so happy (which he of course did not show) when he stood in the kitchen the next morning and Naruto came walking in: his hair messy, a smile on his face and most importantly _no_ limp.

"Ohayo."

"Ohayo. Did you sleep well?"

"Not really, but it's over now."

Sasuke understood and decided to drop it.

"Want some toast with cheese and tomatoes?" He looked up to Naruto.

The answer was a smile. Naruto sat down at the table, while Sasuke made breakfast, and then yawned.

-x-

Half an hour later they stood on the training field, leaning against the same wooden pole.

"Forty-five minutes."

"An hour and ten minutes."

"Deal. If I'm closer we eat ramen tonight."

"Otherwise we eat onigiri," Sasuke said. Naruto nodded in agreement.

Ten minutes later Sakura joined them and they started to spar, as in Sakura and Naruto did; Sasuke was still leaning against the pole.

Sakura punched the ground under Naruto's feet, clearly missing Naruto.

"You need to get faster Sakura-chan," Naruto stated.

Sakura turned around to Naruto and aimed a kick at him. Naruto jumped over her leg and Sakura again punched the ground, but this time on purpose. A crater with sharp rocks sticking up was created under Naruto, right where he would land. Agilely he landed on a point, holding onto it with chakra.

However this time Sakura succeeded in punching Naruto in the shoulder. Being pushed back he made a flip and used the momentum of the punch to push off the ground as soon as he touched it.

Sakura threw shuriken at him and Naruto agilely dodged them all. Grasping a kunai he managed to scrape Sakura's leg when she jumped into the air to avoid him. He quickly grabbed her legs and slammed her down to the ground, but all he had managed to break was a block of wood, Sakura stood near the forest leaning against a tree. She'd used a Kawarimi.

"Who's slow now?" she asked.

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Oooh, I thought it was no ninjutsu."

Sakura stared at Naruto. "Sure you did."

Naruto stuck out his tongue to her and Sakura giggled. Naruto laughed with her.

He suddenly stopped laughing and started giggling instead.

"What it is?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow at the sound.

"I suddenly remembered something funny. Do you remember the first time we met Lee?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow too. He probably would never fully understand Naruto's thinking process. Sakura was probably thinking something along the same lines, judging by the look on her face.

"What about it?" Sasuke asked.

"He only wanted to fight you and kiss Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned again, remembering.

"Hàhaa," Sakura said sarcastically. "You didn't have to avoid those kisses." She sighed. "I wonder if I will ever find a nice boyfriend." She looked a bit dreamy, in a sad way, still leaning against the tree.

Naruto wanted to comfort her but it did not go as he had planned. What he was about to say had sounded so much better in his head. It would have been better if it had stayed there, especially the last part.

"Well, Sasuke and I have each other. Even Neji and Tenten found each other in the end. So, Sakura-chan will surely find someone to love her too, _eventually_."

Right that moment Kakashi chose to come walking to them, giving them an 'ohayo'.

"Onigiri it is," Sasuke said.

"Damn," Naruto said as he turned back to look at Sakura but instead found her fist coming to him.

"Shannaro!"

Blocking his face with both arms, having experienced a broken jaw once before because he hadn't blocked her then, she punched him full force; sending him flying 10 meter away. Naruto yipped. Sasuke and Kakashi pulled a painful face.

"I think I heard something break."

"That's too bad because I just got us a mission and I can't use a Naruto with two broken arms," Kakashi said as his eyes were on Naruto. Sakura huffed.

But apparently there was no need to worry about two broken arms. Naruto hoisted himself up, leaning on his trembling arms. When he sat up straight he rubbed his arms painfully.

"What kind of mission?" he asked. Perhaps if it was low, like a boring C-rank mission, he could pretend his arms were worse than they were. If it was a nice B-rank mission out of town, everything would be okay.

"An old man living half a day from Konoha wants us to bring him something from here," Kakashi told him as he looked Naruto over, a bit surprised as he saw him sitting up.

Naruto considered this; it didn't sound very interesting, as in much action, but it was out of Konoha, even just a bit. He decided it would do. He stood up, dusting off his pants like he wasn't just hit by one of Sakura's earth crushing punches. The tingling sensation in his arms was already beginning to fade away.

"So what time do we leave?" A grin spread over his face.

Sakura's jaw dropped. She did punch him in a bone breaking manner, didn't she? Naruto acted like he had been hit by a… a… Well not by her at least.

"Aren't you… in pain?" she asked.

Naruto looked at her. "The tingling is leaving, not thanks to you." He looked back to Kakashi, "What time?"

Sakura walked over to Naruto, who put his arms back up in defence. She checked him with her hands. Then she dropped them, stunned. "Nothing, not even a crack."

Naruto slowly lowered his arms and looked at her, his eyes narrowed. "You could be happier about it, you know." He walked over to Kakashi and Sasuke. "What _time_?"

Kakashi looked over to Sasuke, who stared back. "In half an hour."

"Good, see you guys later." Naruto turned around to walk away, but Sakura grasped his arm.

"Wait, is this because of the density of your bones?"

Naruto sighed. "I don't know; did you hit me full force, giving it everything?"

"No, but it could have broken a-"

"Then stop worrying about it." He turned around and walked away, his hands resting behind his head.

Sakura wanted to say something about it, but Naruto heard her mouth opening and he looked back at her. "Sakura-chan, we have a mission. An old man is waiting for us." He grinned and after a moment, Sakura gave one back.

"See you in half an hour." He turned away again and was gone.

"I think he just left you," Kakashi said.

"Nah, he'll come back to me. He always does; he needs me."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke as he walked away. Did he just answer to that? And more important, did he make a joke about it? He'd said it in his stoic manner, but still. Kakashi shook his head, as he headed to his home to pack his own things. He didn't need to know why the boy was so happy.

-x-X-x-

Walking to a small village in the land of fire not far away, Naruto ambled in front of the others. Sasuke and Sakura were walking side by side, having a conversation about something that sounded boring to Naruto. Kakashi was as silent as ever, reading his orange book.

Naruto was humming and listening to all the new sounds he could hear, his hands behind his head. He could hear all kinds of animals; there was a stream nearby, a woman talking to a child and the buzzing of a lonely bee. He looked to his left where he could hear a leaf fall from a tree, the wind blowing over a meadow, blowing the seeds off of the dandelions.

Naruto walked past a small temple for travellers. The woman and her son he had heard were standing there under a big iron bell. Naruto was halted when Sakura told him to stop. He turned around wondering why they had stopped.

Sakura walked up to the temple and began to say a small prayer. Kakashi put his book down and looked over to her as well. Sasuke started walking to Sakura and Naruto went after him. Sasuke and Naruto stood each on a side of Sakura and said a small prayer too.

The small boy looked up to Sasuke, who was standing next to him and gasped.

"Wow, a real ninja! Can I ask you something?"

Sasuke looked down to the boy, uninterested. The boy had a cheery smile on his face. His mother laid her hand on his shoulder. "I don't think he-"

"Have you ever killed someone?" the boy had blurted it out before his mother could make him stop. She looked up very nervously to Sasuke.

"I'm sorry, he's just a child. He doesn't know what he is saying." She pulled the boy away from Sasuke, afraid he might do something to them. "We will just leave. Sorry."

Sasuke stood there just staring at them. Naruto didn't think it weird of the mother to freak out; though her son did not seem to notice.

"I _do_ know what I'm saying. Have you?" he asked Sasuke again.

Sakura stepped out of the line they had been forming to hunch down and looked at the boy with a smile on her face. "I can see you are a big boy. Do you want to become a ninja yourself?"

"No. Have you ever killed someone?" he asked her instead.

Sakura looked up to his mother for a second and then back to the boy. "I'm a medic ninja, I cure people." She smiled gently to him.

The mother sighed, glad Sakura had not really answered the question, but the boy wasn't finished and he looked back up to Sasuke and started again.

"Have you ever-" but his mom had had enough.

"Stop it Kenta, that's enough!" The mother had grasped the boy and was about to leave when she saw Naruto standing. Her eyes widened, but she said nothing. Afraid her son would see Naruto and begin another 'conflict', she pulled him away from the temple.

"Have a nice day," she told them.

"But mom, I haven't rung the bell yet!" She stopped and decided that it was not worth his whining all the way back, about not having rung the bell.

"Okay, but be quick."

He ran to the cord of the bell and yanked it hard, making the bell give a very loud clang. He hurriedly turned around and ran back to his mom and left. He did not see he had caused Naruto to fall on his knees, clapping his hand over his fox ears. Sakura turned to Naruto and kneeled next to him.

"Itai~. That's loud."

Sasuke reached for the bell and steadied it, making the sound stop. They stood there doing nothing for a while till Naruto lifted his head.

"Thanks," he said softly and then looked over to Sasuke. "Are you okay?" he asked. Sasuke turned to him, blinking.

"I wasn't the one deafened by the sound of the bell."

"No." Naruto stood up, swaying a bit before gripping the rail around the small temple. "But you were really quiet when he asked you if you had killed someone."

Sasuke looked from Naruto to Sakura, who now stood next to Naruto, and then to Kakashi, who was standing further away.

"That boy doesn't need to know anything about what we do. He didn't even know what he was asking." He walked over to Kakashi.

Naruto and Sakura exchanged looks. Naruto had a feeling there was more behind it then Sasuke let on and seeing Sakura's face she did too. Deciding it was better not to anger Sasuke they dropped the topic. Naruto would find out later.

-x-

The sun was beginning to set and they had almost arrived at their destination. Naruto walked next to Sasuke, who was holding his hand. Now Naruto really knew there was something up.

Carefully he decided to try and ask. He almost whispered to Sasuke, as they walked a little behind Kakashi and Sakura, so they would not hear him. "What was the matter earlier?"

"Nothing really."

Naruto gave him a look. "But?"

"I was just thinking of all the people I killed."

"And?"

"I'm not sure. There aren't too many I killed. I mostly just injure them enough to keep them quiet."

Naruto nodded. "Well, as far as I know about the ones you killed you did a fine job. Orochimaru and Madara."

"Didn't really kill Madara on my own."

"Alright, so we both killed him, doesn't make him less dead." Naruto shivered. "That could give one nightmares."

Sasuke pulled up his eyebrows; not really understanding what Naruto was saying. "It's not so much the people I killed, as more that one man."

Naruto looked back to Sasuke. He was talking about Itachi. Sasuke had once before told Naruto he regretted killing Itachi more than anything he had done in his life.

"But you know he had planned it all out like this. It was his wish to die by your hands instead by some stranger or by a disease."

"I know, but I still can't let it go."

Naruto gave his hand a squeeze. "I can't tell you to stop thinking about him and honestly I don't think you should. He was important to you, but I can say we could pay our respects to him more often."

Sasuke nodded at that. "Thanks."

"Besides, you have his eyes. He isn't completely gone, right?"

Sasuke turned to Naruto. Before he had returned to Konoha he and Madara had had a talk about Itachi. Sasuke hadn't known what to think of it at first, if what he had told was the truth or not. But when Madara offered him to transplant Itachi's eyes he'd said yes. After the transplant it had become clear to him that he had to return to Konoha and live up to his brother's wish. Of course he hadn't told Madara so.

Sasuke grinned. "Yeah, you're right." _Aniki helped me come back here._ He turned his head slightly to Naruto. _And made me see what I really wanted in my live._

-x-X-x-

It was almost dark now and they had finally reached their destination. Kakashi looked around a small property with a house and a barn. A man was looking out of the window. The moment he spotted them he walked out of the house, straight toward Kakashi.

"Kakashi-kun, you have grown so much." He slapped his hand on Kakashi's shoulder, who sort of grinned back.

"Takahashi-san, how nice to see you again."

The old man turned to face Sakura. "Hmm, you're not Rin-chan, but you look cute too."

Sakura blushed a bit as she took the outstretched hand of the man and shook it. "My name is Haruno Sakura."

"What a lovely name for a lovely lady." The blush deepened.

Takahashi turned to Sasuke. "Hmm, he kind of looks like Obito-kun, but isn't. You must be an Uchiha though."

Sasuke took the man's hand and shook it like Sakura had done. "Uchiha Sasuke," he said with an almost monotone voice.

"I thought so." Last he turned to Naruto.

"Minato-kun? You actually look younger."

Naruto's eyes widened and mouth fell open. "What?" His ears went up.

Kakashi stepped forward. "This isn't Minato-sensei."

Sakura looked over to Naruto. She knew Kakashi's sensei had been the Yondaime. Did this mean that…

"Oh? Then you must be his son or something, you look so much like him."

Naruto flustered a bit at that, his hand rubbing the back of his head.

"He is," Sasuke stated, thinking it was nice for Naruto to have someone acknowledge him as the son of the Yondaime.

Sakura's mouth hung open, Kakashi stared at Sasuke and Takahashi put his arm around Naruto's shoulder.

"Really? That's so nice. Though I should have known, last time I saw Minato-kun he didn't have fox ears," he said. Following in a whisper he added, like on a side note, "I didn't know he had a girlfriend, though. Even if I must say the last time I saw him it was over twenty years ago. How is he?"

Naruto looked up to the man. "He died along with kaa-chan to protect me and the village."

"What? He's dead?" He looked over to Kakashi, who nodded sadly.

"That's too bad, he was a nice man. How are Obito-kun and Rin-chan doing?" he looked over to Kakashi.

The white haired man shook his head. "They both died a long time ago on missions."

The old man was quiet for a while. "I'm sorry to hear that." He looked around at the others. "Well, at least you got a nice new team."

"Yes, you're right, Takahashi-san." Kakashi smiled, by the look of his one visible eye.

"Well, I guess you must be hungry, I still have some rice you can eat." He walked towards the house. "I'm so glad the Hokage sent your team, I was wondering how you were doing. I would have asked for you to come sooner, but I didn't really have an assignment to bother a ninja with. Not that I really do now, but still. An old man all by himself at the end of his life; you start over-thinking all kinds of things about your life." He just talked and talked all the while as he made them sit at a kitchen table, giving them rice and milk.

He talked about the mission team Minato had had to accomplish last time. They had to scare away some robber that kept coming back and steal his food. Takahashi had his own little farm; he had two cows, a handful of sheep, a pig, some chickens and a nice garden with all kinds of self planted vegetables.

Apparently on their mission they had almost captured the robber, when Obito had at the last moment ruined it. They then had to wait a whole week before the robber came back, thinking they had left, and finally caught him. During the time they had spent at Takahashi's farm they had helped him out with his chores, which provided even funnier stories.

"-and then little Kakashi-kun had to show him how to do it. He walked up to the sheep with his chest puffed up and at first couldn't even catch the animal. After the shortest comical sheep catching I have ever seen he finally managed to hold it still to shave. Oh, I just… This is just too funny, I don't think I can-I can tell it to you guys in one go." He stroked a tear of laughter away, rolling down his cheek.

Naruto was hanging to his lips and Sakura was sucked into the story as well; this man could tell. Sasuke pretended to have no real interest in the story and only listening to it out of politeness, but in reality he had some trouble not to appear to enjoy it too much either. Kakashi had his hand over his already covered eye in shame, but was at the same time enjoying it too.

"If you don't want me to tell it you have to say so." The old man looked over to Kakashi, who waved his hand to say he could proceed. "He couldn't get to shave the sheep at all; he just kept shaving the same spot over and over again. Rin-chan tried to lend a hand, but it was no help."

Takahashi was making all kinds of movements to express how things had gone and Naruto was about to fall of his chair from laughter. Sakura was laughing as well and Sasuke was just able to keep his mouth closed, but it was very hard and he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

"Even with the three of-of them," he made even wilder moves. "They just couldn't keep the sheep in his place. Though I must tell you that by now the sheep was in so much panic he was as wild as could be. Luckily for them Rin-chan was a medic ninja, otherwise they would have had to walk around with a black eye for the next week." He sat down on the chair again and tried to catch his breath as his company tried to do the same.

"Well, I must say that, as funny as that was, I just had to save the sheep myself. Minato-kun tried to help, but I must say you ninja's really aren't farmers." He shook his head.

He told them a few other stories before he noticed the time and sent them to bed. Naruto and Sakura were discussing what they had just heard, eyeing Kakashi once in a while and laughing, as they made up their beds.

Takahashi's house wasn't that big and they all had to sleep in the living room together. Finally they had prepared their beds. They had decided Sakura could sleep on the couch.

Naruto yawned as he lay down on his thin mattress. Sasuke watched him and saw his canine teeth having grown. "You need meat, don't you?"

Naruto turned his head to Sasuke, sleepy eyed. "Yeah, but it can wait till morning, I've done that before." He yawned.

Sasuke stared. "Really?" he couldn't think of a time.

"Last week it happened in the middle of the night, while we were already sleeping and there was nothing in my apartment, so I went back to bed again."

"Okay," Sasuke said as he tried to remember this, not succeeding.

"Oyasumi, minna." Naruto muttered.

"Good night." Sakura said from above him, lying on the couch.

-x-

Sasuke woke up, but it was still dark. He felt some movements and tried to look to his right. "Naruto?"

Where was Naruto? He groped over the floor, but he felt nothing. With a jolt he sat up right as he at the same time remembered Naruto laid to his left. Looking to Naruto he saw him seizing.

"Naruto!"

Sakura and Kakashi were awake now as well. Sakura saw Naruto and sat on top of him on his stomach.

"Hold his arms."

Sasuke and Kakashi did so. Sakura put a piece of cloth in Naruto mouth and tried to steady him. Using chakra, she moved her hands up and down over his body. Naruto slowly stopped seizing and gave one final cramp and opened his eyes, lying still on the floor. His eyes were red and had slit pupils.

Sakura removed the cloth from his mouth and he moaned.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked a bit feverish, though he wasn't too warm, just a bit sweaty.

"Just-," he couldn't finish it as he gave another spasm.

"-need meat." Sasuke finished for him, seeing his overly large canines. "I'll go look around for something." And he hurried away.

Sakura looked down to Naruto with a thoughtful look on her face. Naruto knew what she was thinking because he was wondering the same.

"What would happen if I didn't… eat meat." It wasn't really a question.

Sakura nodded. "Yes." She stroked some hair from Naruto's face, still sitting on his stomach. "But it's not something to find out now."

Naruto agreed, but he was already distracted as he heard Sasuke rumbling through some cabinets of the old man and slammed one shut a bit too loud. Naruto got startled by it a bit, he gave a small yip and grasped Kakashi's sleeve. It might also have something to do with a meat-craving shooting through him at the same time. He gasped as Kakashi laid his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a bit.

"I don't think s-something bad will happen. It's just… uncomfortable." He cramped up a little as Sasuke entered holding a small piece of something that looked like chicken.

"It's all I could find. Should I bake it?"

Naruto was a bit in a dilemma; seeing the meat he really wanted it right now, but he didn't want to eat it raw in front of them. But Sakura had already decided for him and grasped the chicken from Sasuke's hands and handed it to Naruto.

"He needs it now." She helped him sit up and stood up from him.

The moment Sakura had pushed the meat in his hands he was lost. Within a few bites it was gone and the same could be said about the red in his eyes, though his teeth were still very long. Sakura blinked a few times at the speed he had eaten the raw meat. Raw meat is supposed to be sturdy, but Naruto had eaten it like it was ramen.

"That wasn't enough, but I couldn't find more."

"Blurgh, I hate this." Naruto put out his tongue in disgust of the aftertaste. "Raw meat doesn't taste very nice." He looked up to the door as he heard the old man coming. And indeed a moment later Takahashi entered the room.

"What is all that noise about?" He looked around the room. "Everything okay?" He eyed Naruto's fangs, which were now so long they stuck out his mouth over his lower lip.

Naruto decided to be frank and just asked the man flat out. "Do you have any meat in the house?"

Sasuke looked to Naruto, being surprised he was so bold about it.

"Yes, I keep it in the barn."

Sasuke sighed. No wonder he couldn't find more than just that one piece.

"Would it be too much to ask if Naruto over here could have some? We will get you some new meat tomorrow." Kakashi asked.

"Sure you can and I don't need anything in return. I'm already very delighted you guys are here." He smiled. Together with Sasuke he walked away. Naruto groaned, his ears lowering. Sakura watched him.

"Have you eaten any meat this week?"

Naruto looked at her and thought for a moment. "Not much." His finger went up to one long canine and fingered it. "No, now that you mention it. I haven't."

"Perhaps it would be better if you eat meat every day instead of once a week. If you eat a certain amount of meat every day, the weekly craving might disappear."

Naruto nodded, she had a point. He looked up to Kakashi, who was watching him closely.

Sasuke and Takahashi came walking back and Sasuke started baking the meat. Takahashi wished them a goodnight and went back to sleep.

"You guys can go back to sleep as well, you know. Just put out the light, I can see in the dark anyway."

"Like we could sleep while you wolf down the meat." Sasuke smirked.

"I can do it without waking you. I do it all the time."

Sasuke turned around. "_Sure,_" he said mockingly.

"Over a month ago, I went to the 24-hour store in the middle of the night, came back, cooked some meat and ate it. The next morning you haven't said anything about it."

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "We were at your apartment then?"

"Yes, makes it even more incredible, right?" Naruto said a little bit proud. His own apartment was much smaller and the walls thinner, making moving around soundlessly much harder.

Sasuke didn't say a thing. He hadn't noticed and it worried him a bit. Naruto came to stand next to him bending over the pan. "It's okay like this. I like it when the meat is still a bit red."

Sasuke took the pan away from the fire and Naruto began eating the meat while the rest slowly retreated back to their beds.

"Ouch!"

Everyone looked over to Naruto, who had clapped his hand in front of his mouth.

"What did you do this time?" Sakura asked.

"Lip, I bwit my lip." He pulled away his hand as a small trail of blood came dripping from his lip.

"I _was_ wondering how you could eat with those without hurting yourself," Kakashi said.

"Me too," Naruto admitted.

Sometime later Naruto finished eating and went back to bed in the dark, as he had convinced the rest to go back to sleep. He crawled under the blankets and felt Sasuke's hand coming to his face.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

"No fiddling tonight, Sasuke," Kakashi said as he turned around. Sakura snickered.

Sasuke just ignored them and felt his way on Naruto's face, not really seeing it in the dark. He finally found Naruto's mouth and tried to feel the fangs.

"Sto- stop it, Sasuke." Naruto tried to push away the hand.

"Just let me-"

Naruto growled a bit out of annoyance. Sasuke finally managed to feel the teeth and pulled his hand away from Naruto.

"What was that for?"

"Your teeth are still long."

Naruto was quiet. "So? I have had enough meat. I'm not going to eat more," he said a bit irritated, turning his back to Sasuke. "Night."

-oXo-

A/N: I know the mission is a bit… yeah… you know… ^^ I just didn't want to write about a Naruto that is all sad about being all foxy, but let him have a nice mission to show that there really are people who don't care about how he looks like apart from his friends.

On another note: I would like to know what you think about a sequel? Please let me know. I've already started writing, but perhaps you can give me some tips or help me in some other way.


	25. Chapter 25: 3rd of September

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 25: 3****rd**** of September**

The next morning Kakashi woke up to the sound of Naruto's purring. He sat up from his makeshift bed and saw Sasuke lying on Naruto's chest with a smirk on his face and his eyes closed. Kakashi decided to let it go and keep to his books as he walked to the bathroom.

When he came back however he saw Sakura lying with her head on Naruto's chest and a softly grumbling Sasuke next to them. Naruto was still fast asleep and purring. His mouth was slightly open, probably due to his sharp long canines brushing his lower lip.

Sakura began giggling a bit. "It _does_ feel nice to lay on him when he's purring," she stated.

Kakashi was about to make (another) threesome remark, but thought twice before doing so. Perhaps now wasn't the time; well it was, but he would be nice today. He had to sleep near them for at least another night until they got back in Konoha, it would be better not to say anything. They might 'accidentally' kill him in his sleep. So he just watched where this situation would get them. (He could bring this up some other time to annoy them). Besides, looking over to Naruto, knowing him, he thought this could get interesting.

Naruto had slowly woken up because he could feel a glare aimed at him - correction, not at him but to someone close. Sasuke's glare was probably directed to the person lying on top of him. He hadn't needed to hear the giggles or take in her smell to know it was Sakura. This was the moment to make them pay for yet _again_ making fun of his purring.

He suddenly put his arms around Sakura and cuddled her. She stiffened at his touch, turning red and immediately becoming quiet. Sasuke's glare had stopped as he took a short sharp inhale, to be replaced by a shocked expression. The shock was partly because of the action Naruto had taken but as well of the words he mumbled, still pretending to be asleep.

"Hmmm, Sa-" He inhaled a bit, making Sakura and Sasuke stiffen up even more, "Sakura-chan."

He only wished he could have seen their faces, hearing Kakashi snicker silently confirmed it was hilarious.

Sakura slowly tried to pry herself loose from Naruto's grip, but Naruto wasn't finished yet. He wanted to know how far Sasuke would let this go before he became too possessive. So Naruto reached a hand up to Sakura's hair and began to fumble with it, very much like he always did with Sasuke's hair.

Sasuke apparently couldn't handle this anymore and as he leaned forward, Naruto let Sakura go. She immediately shot up away from him and Sasuke. It was quiet for a moment and then Naruto began snickering, first softly but slowly it became a laugh as he opened his eyes and sat up.

Sasuke gave him a smack at the back of his head, looking rather pissed.

"Oh, come on, Sasuke. Don't tell me you couldn't tell it was a joke?" he asked rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. Apparently not by the look on Sasuke's face. Naruto turned to Sakura, who looked down at her feet, hands clenching into fists. Naruto abruptly stopped purring.

"It's your own fault, you know, trying to make fun of me purring… _again_." He glanced from the one to the other. They looked even angrier than before.

Through a lot of experience as a prankster he knew this might be the right time to run. Before they could even blink, all Sasuke and Sakura saw was Naruto's tail disappearing around the corner and hear the bathroom door closing.

Kakashi decided this wasn't the best time to be around his students and headed outside, still chuckling.

-x-

Breakfast came and Sasuke and Sakura were still a bit pissed at Naruto, who pretended nothing was wrong. Wolfing down his thick layered ham sandwich, Takahashi looked over to him.

"How can you be so hungry, when you already ate a plate full of meat a couple of hours ago?"

Naruto shrugged and continued eating.

"So what do you want us to do today, Takahashi-san? We already brought you the items you needed from Konoha, so our mission is done. But seeing there is a storms outside, we are forced to stay here and help you a bit on the farm," Kakashi said.

Sakura looked outside. A beautiful sun was already shining high in the sky for this early a time in the morning. Kakashi obviously didn't want to disappoint the man and leave already.

"Well in that case, I could use some help with the garden, the cabbages can be cut off and the last beans plucked so the stalks can be pulled out. The vegetables also need to be watered, because it is so dry and the-"

"Me, me. I want to take care of the plants," Naruto said as he raised his hand like he was in class, knowing the answer to a question.

Sakura giggled and Naruto knew this might mean she was over her grumpiness.

"I have never even seen you once raise your hand in class," she giggled.

"So? Iruka-sensei never asked if someone would like to water the plants back then."

"True. Still, I've never seen you so interested in plants before."

"I just like watering plants, that's all."

"I remember a few weeks ago when you were drowning one," Sasuke said not even looking up.

"But I thought I had really broken something that's very important to you!" Naruto said taken aback.

"Doesn't make things up for that dead plant."

"It didn't die, I let the excess water run away. It was very healthy last time I saw it." Naruto directed an angry look to Sasuke, who smirked back.

"Alright kids let's get to work."

"Hai, Takahashi-san."

-x-

Naruto was happily watering the plants after he and Sakura had done the other garden chores; Sasuke and Kakashi had helped Takahashi in the barn. Now they sat on a bench in front of the house after finishing all the chores, watching Naruto; he was humming and his tail was happily swishing around.

"He really does look a lot like Minato-kun, doesn't he?"

"On the outside," Kakashi said, "but on the inside he is more like his mother."

"Really, what was she like?" Sakura asked.

"She had real pretty, long red hair," Naruto said, smiling.

"How could he-? Oh, the ears," Takahashi said.

"Have you ever seen your mom?" Sakura asked confused.

"Yeah, we sort of met." Naruto turned around again to the plants, looking away from them. "The same way I sort of met my dad."

"You met them? How?" Sakura was perplexed.

"My dad put some chakra of the both of them in the seal."

"Wow, must be great to have been able to meet them, even though it was once," she said softly.

"When did you see your okaa-san?" Sasuke asked, Naruto had told him about meeting his father, but had never mentioned meeting his mother. Hadn't he told him he had never met her back then?

"Yeah, well, it was after the re-sealing of the Kyuubi. I thought it had been just a dream for quite some time. Recently I became to realise it wasn't just a dream," he said with a small voice, still his back to them, not stopping with watering.

It was silent except for the watering for a while.

"So you mean she had a loud mouth as well? Minato-kun was always so calm." Takahashi grinned, trying to lighten the mood.

"She was," Kakashi nodded.

"Hm," Sasuke smiled.

"What's so funny, Sasuke-kun?"

"I can already imagine them yelling at each other."

Naruto turned around pouting. "You're mean."

"At least I never yelled at my mom."

Naruto looked back, one eyebrow raised. "Do you even hear what you just said?" He had trouble keeping his face straight. "I never yelled at my mom, though I did accuse her of being the Kyuubi." His hand was now on his chin, pensively.

"What?" Sakura said. "How could you think that?"

"I don't know, I was walking in front of the Kyuubi's cage when she was suddenly there. I thought the fox was trying to trick me. She did have very red hair," Naruto blushed a bit.

Kakashi laughed. "That sounds like something you would do."

Naruto pouted again, turning back to face the plants once more, grumbling. Sasuke laughed as well and soon Sakura and Takahashi followed.

"I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I'm really glad you came over to help me."

-x-

It was almost evening as they had stayed to talk for way to long, having forgotten the time. But it was about time they headed home. They could only stretch their delay that much.

"Goodbye, Takahashi-san."

"Sayonara!"

"See you, jiji-san!"

They turned around and headed into the dark forest.

-x-

They had picked a place to camp for the night and were sitting around a small fire. They were all silent except for Naruto, who was purring once more. Sakura and Sasuke had at first given him some glares, but after a while they had let it go.

"I still can't believe it."

Everyone looked up to Sakura.

"What?" Naruto asked. Sakura turned her head to him.

"That Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi inside his own son."

Naruto abruptly stopped purring. "Eh?"

"Why?" she asked. She looked down at her knees as her arms were folded around them.

Silence fell.

"I'm sorry, it's not my business." She turned around and lay down on the ground, covering herself with a blanket.

It was silent again. Kakashi leaned back to a tree and closed his eye. Sasuke glanced at Naruto before he lay down too.

Naruto sat there, staring at the fire and Sakura lying at the other side of it. He poked into the ash with a stick.

He sat there like this and an hour past.

"Kaa-chan was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before me," Naruto suddenly whispered into the fire. Everything was silent except for the crackling of the fire.

"When I was born, Madara showed up and threatened to kill me. My dad saved me, but instead Madara took my mom with him to extract the fox, because of the weakness of the seal during birth." Naruto didn't know why he was telling this, or why he was whispering. He just did.

"She survived the extraction and Madara send Kyuubi to attack the village." He fiddled with his tail and thought of what Kushina had told him about what had happened that day.

"Yondaime somehow was able to lure the fox away and performed the Dead Demon Seal. He sealed half of Kyuubi's chakra into himself." Naruto heard the silent breathing of the three shinobi around him. "Kaa-chan didn't agree at first when he told her he would seal the fox inside me. But he told her how important it is to protect the village and the country. That we all are a family of shinobi." He was surprised how calm he was while telling this. Perhaps because he knew they were awake, but did not move. Because they kept 'pretending' to be asleep, so _he_ could pretend they were. Because he actually felt good to tell someone. Because in some strange way it felt like he was thanking them for everything they had done for him.

"That he did it for me."

Naruto heard Sakura's breathing hitch. When he looked up a bit he saw she was still lying still. He couldn't see her face because of the blanket. He didn't hear anything coming from Sasuke or Kakashi, but he knew they were listening.

"They died protecting me. _Because they loved me._"

He didn't say another thing and sat still for a long time. Then he just turned around, pulled his blanket over him and closed his eyes. He smiled as he drifted off.

-oXo-

A/N: Mhuhahahaa, I'm looking forward to what you will think of the next chapter...


	26. Chapter 26: 10th of September

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

-oXo-

**Chapter 26: 10****th**** of September**

Naruto lay down in Sasuke's bed. It was already one in the morning and Sasuke still wasn't home. It had been the anniversary of the Uchiha massacre and Sasuke was out alone.

Naruto hadn't liked it, but Sasuke had said he'd wanted to visit the graves alone, like he used to do. Naruto had whined about it to come with him until Sasuke got tired of it and went out his apartment alone. Naruto had considered following him, but thought it might be best if Sasuke was alone after all. It's not like they had to do everything together. Naruto could understand.

So he had watched television, but couldn't remember what he had watched or had even done.

Finally he went to bed, but he couldn't sleep and it wasn't because he wasn't tired. Naruto had trained his tail off that day and would normally have already been sleeping for hours.

He rolled around the bed more than he used to do as he felt the empty bed. He let his head fall face forward into his pillow. He lay like this for a moment until he ran out of air and rolled over onto his back.

"Hnn, Sasuke," he murmured softly. His eyes were closing and he was finally slowly beginning to doze off. He didn't really wanted to sleep, but couldn't help it.

A soft snore could be heard in the apartment.

-x-

It was around three in the morning when Sasuke entered the apartment, locking the door behind him. That didn't go as he wanted in one try; in fact it took him three tries to get the key in the lock and was finally able to lock it.

Sasuke swayed to the bedroom and entered. He saw Naruto lie in bed on his belly. Silently he went to the bed.

In the bar where he had been drinking (yes, he had), he came to realize more and more after each empty glass of sake how much he loved Naruto, but how much he feared his relationship as well. There were so many things that could go wrong between them.

As he stood next to the bed he thought about how he wanted to lie down and sleep; but he couldn't. His growing fears had taken the best of him. He had to tell Naruto. Tell him how he really felt.

Before Sasuke could say or do anything Naruto turned around and woke up, feeling the eyes on him.

"Sasuke, you're back. What time is it?" he rubbed his eyes as he turned to look at the alarm clock.

"Time to get out of the bed."

"But it's 3:17 in the morning," Naruto said unbelievingly as he turned back to Sasuke. "Did you just come back?" Naruto sat up and saw Sasuke still in his clothes. "And is that...?" he sniffed the air. "Have you been drinking sake?" Naruto asked in disbelieve.

"So many questions and none of them matter," Sasuke said as he came closer to the bed. "Naruto, I want you to get out of the bed, now."

"Why? Sasuke you're not making any-"

"Now, get out of the bed!" Sasuke yelled.

Naruto cringed a bit at the sudden loudness of his voice. After considering Sasuke for a second he laid back down.

"You're drunk; you can sleep on the couch." And he rolled over onto his side, his back to Sasuke.

Sasuke was near his breakpoint, which was reached rather quickly in his drunken state. "I want you..." he walked to the other side of the bed where Naruto lay, "to get..." he pulled the covers back, Naruto immediately curled up, "OUT!" and he pulled Naruto to the ground by his shirt.

Naruto jumped up and answered angrily, "Teme! Go sleep on the couch and sober up!"

"You don't get me, Naruto." Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm rather tightly, making Naruto flinch. He pulled Naruto to the door of the bedroom. "I want you out. Out of my house!"

Naruto froze, "What?"

Sasuke pushed him past the threshold, but couldn't get Naruto any further. He looked up and saw Naruto with his arms spread against the walls, holding them both in place.

"Sasuke, why do you want me out?" Naruto asked, looking over his shoulder to Sasuke as they kept pushing and pulling each other.

"I don't want to live with you anymore."

Naruto in his shock at these words let the wall go and they tumbled forward as Sasuke had still been pushing him. Sasuke quickly stood up again and Naruto asked, "Why?"

He sounded hurt. He didn't really knew why himself, because Sasuke had to be joking or just really drunk. Anyway he didn't really meant what he'd said. But why did it hurt then?

"Because-" Sasuke stopped and looked down to Naruto, who was now looking up to him, "because I don't want to be with you again. Us being together will only bring bad things, like it has done until now."

"No it hasn't." Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes. "Sasuke, you're not making any sense."

Sasuke balled his fists. "We cannot be together and you know it as well. We don't really love each other. I mean, how could I ever love a fox demon? And admit it, you're turning into one. And above all...," he put up his hand so Naruto wouldn't speak yet as he had wanted to. "I need an heir for my clan and you can't give me one."

Naruto almost didn't know what to say. "What? First of all, that thing with the fox is over, you said so yourself. Second I'm not a fox demon, it is sealed inside of me, there's a difference. And third even if I could have, I wouldn't want to give you a child anyway!" he growled. "I know you don't mean all this, but you're pissing me off right now!"

Sasuke scowled. "Ha! _If you could have_..." his voice died down and as he looked up to Naruto again, his eyes glistered red from the Sharingan.

"You can't guarantee that the fox won't come back, or for that matter already has, to take you over." He stamped on Naruto's tail, which he might have broken if it hadn't been for the fox-enhanced bones in it. It still hurt, though.

"If it had, you would've noticed a long time ago, you asshole!" Naruto was done with this; his anger had taken the best of him. He kicked at Sasuke's shins and tried to stand up, but Sasuke somehow in his drunken state, saw what he was planning and kicked him in the stomach.

"Stay away, bakemono! It was your fault I lost everything!"

"What?" Sasuke just kept surprising Naruto.

Naruto stood up and attacked Sasuke again, this time landing a fist on his jaw. Sasuke counter attacked and kneed Naruto in his stomach again. Before Naruto could double over he grabbed his throat.

"Yeah, because of the fox attacking the village and blaming the Uchiha for it!" He tightened his grip on Naruto's throat as Naruto tried to pry his fingers off.

"That's wasn't my do-" He stopped. Maybe that wasn't entirely true. It_ had_ been because of him being born that the fox could break free after all.

"You see, you realise it yourself, you're a monster! It's your fault my clan, my family, my parents are death." The Sharingan was spinning in his eyes.

"No! It was... because of Madara... that the fox attacked!" Naruto wheezed between gasps of air.

Sasuke loosened his grip somewhat and Naruto took this chance to push Sasuke away, making him hit the wall rather hard. As Naruto straightened up and reminded himself that this was getting out of hand, he saw Sasuke still leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. He pushed off the wall and stumbled towards Naruto.

Naruto was quite surprised at the sudden change in Sasuke's behaviour. As stunned as he was he couldn't make himself into moving away as Sasuke came closer to him. Finally Sasuke tripped over his own feet and fell against Naruto, who caught him.

"Dobe," Sasuke mumbled into Naruto's shoulder, as Naruto tried to keep him up from falling. "I'm tired, let's get to bed."

Naruto stood there, frozen. Only minutes ago Sasuke had called him a monster and now he wanted to get to bed? Was this what happened to a drunken Sasuke? Or had this just been a joke?

Finally after quite a while he was able to move, he dragged Sasuke to the bed and dropped him on it. Sasuke's eyes were closed the entire time. As Naruto was thinking of what to do, Sasuke opened his eyes halfway and said, "I love you."

Naruto took a sharp inhale. He couldn't take this anymore. Was Sasuke saying the truth right now or just moments ago? Did he mean it when he said that Naruto was a monster? It hadn't sounded like Sasuke at all. But where had it come from then? Was there a truth in everything he had said? It had sounded that way.

Naruto took a step backwards as he saw Sasuke's peaceful face, sleeping like nothing had happened. He couldn't take this anymore, words Sasuke had said kept repeating in his head. _'Stay away, bakemono! It was your fault I lost everything!'_ His eyes began to prickle.

No one had called him a demon for quite some time now; hearing it coming from Sasuke's mouth made it all the worse. He stumbled back to the wall and slid down to the ground. Tears finally streamed down his face as he felt a painful stinging in his heart.

He sat there for hours, watching Sasuke sleep, because he couldn't move, because he was hurt, because of Sasuke sleeping like a baby as if nothing had happened, because he didn't know what to do, because…

Naruto didn't want to think, just fall asleep and hope everything would be fine the next day, but he knew it wasn't that simple. He wanted someone to comfort him, but Sasuke was that person to him who always did that. And he obviously wasn't an option.

He wanted someone close to him like a friend… friend. Sakura would help him and she wouldn't tell anyone about what had happened. She would be there for him to talk to.

He remembered her saying she had a nightshift at the hospital that night. So the blond very slowly got up from the wall. He walked to the place where he had thrown his pants on the ground before sleeping and pulled them on. He walked out of Sasuke's apartment without looking back at Sasuke and went to the hospital.

There he saw Sakura sit on a bench in a small park next to the hospital, she probably had a break. If he hadn't been hurt so much and really needed to talk these fears away, he might have reconsidered this.

He stood behind one of the trees close to Sakura, but couldn't bring himself to take another step.

"Sa-Sakura-chan," he called softly.

Sakura looked up from her book. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

Naruto stayed leaning against the tree.

After a minute Sakura stood up and walked to him. "What's wrong Naruto?" Then she saw him standing, hunching. "Oh my, are you all right? What happened?" she asked concerned.

"Sasuke went to visit his parents grave… you know why. He told me not to come with him; instead he went to a bar and got himself drunk." Naruto looked down, he was glad Sakura didn't jump in yet. He looked up again.

"And then he-he start-ed…" Naruto couldn't tell her and began crying softly again as he remembered Sasuke's words. Sakura just pulled him into a hug. She had no idea what had happened. All sorts of things crossed her mind, one scenario worse than the other. She padded him on the back.

"Sakura-chan. He said... he..." Naruto sniffed.

This was probably worse than it looked. Naruto seemed fine physically, but there was definitely something he needed to tell her, which was very hard to do. So she let him go and said, "Let's go to my private examination room, okay?"

Naruto nodded.

-x-

Naruto was sitting against Sakura's desk, his head resting on his folded arms that leaned on his raised knees, hiccoughing. He had been more comfortable talking this way instead of sitting in the chair. He had told Sakura everything that had happened. Sakura had been sitting next to him the whole time, listening to him.

"It's just that... that he kept calling me a monster. He's right, what if the fox does take me over, then what? I don't-"

"Naruto?" Sakura was shocked. "You know we re-sealed the fox, for good this time!" she added as Naruto was about to protest. She put her arm around him and hugged Naruto.

"Perhaps there is a small part inside Sasuke that is afraid of you, but only because he is afraid of losing you."

Naruto looked up into Sakura's emerald eyes for a moment as he pulled back and then hugged her again.

"I know what he said is unforgivable and I would make sure to punch him through a wall as soon as he's sobered up, but Naruto... You must know that when I say that he really loves you, that this is the truth."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I guess it scared me so much what he said, because I've been thinking it as well."

Sakura rubbed his back. "Naruto, I know that it is hard to talk about these fears, especially for Sasuke, but you need to talk about them. Both of you."

Naruto nodded on her shoulder and he sniffed again.

They sat there for a while like that, until Naruto pushed Sakura away. "Arigatou."

Sakura gave him a small smile and he carefully returned it.

"What are you going to do next?" she asked.

"I don't know. I don't think Sasuke has ever been drunk before. He probably won't remember."

"I hope he has a major hangover because of it," Sakura said seriously, Naruto grinned. "I'm serious."

"I know, it's just funny. Six years ago you would never have said something like that."

Sakura grinned too. "Yeah, well, I got over my crush."

"You had to, because Sasuke had his eyes on someone else."

"Yeah, it's funny when you think about it now, but I must say it almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you guys kissing in a deserted alley after a mission."

"Then try to think how _I_ felt. One moment we were fighting and the next I was pushed against the wall, Sasuke kissing me. Man, I thought he had lost it."

"And you probably thought some other things as well, because when I saw you guys, you were definitely kissing him back."

Naruto blushed. "Yeah, well, I can't deny I didn't like it, though I was thoroughly confused about it."

"Then I probably ruined the kiss."

"You pretty much did, with that scream of yours. I thought the whole of Konoha had heard it."

"It wasn't that loud."

"To me it was, even now when I think back about it. And may I remind you that I have fox ears now." He smiled at Sakura and she laughed.

"Then it must have been really bad."

Naruto laughed with her. Slowly the laughing died down.

"But seriously, what are you going to do with Sasuke-kun?"

"Perhaps I should beat him into a pulp, like you suggested," he said sadly.

Sakura looked up to him. It was silent again.

After a while Naruto spoke again. "I think I will just tell him if he doesn't remember. I don't like lying to him."

Sakura looked up at him. "Really?"

She looked forward again and started playing with a lock of her hair. "I think you are right. He needs to know he was wrong."

Naruto's tail swished.

The sun was already up and Naruto decided it was time for him to go. Sakura stood up as well and an uncomfortable silence fell.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan, for everything." And he hugged her, very tightly, and she hugged back. He stroked her back; it was more out of habit than a conscious thing.

Sakura smiled and let go. "You guys are so lucky to have each other. I'm really glad for you."

She slowly reached up to his ears. Naruto let her touch them and closed his eyes.

"Eh? They are so soft."

Naruto opened his eyes again. "So I heard."

Sakura smiled and let go.

"See you later then," Naruto said as he walked to the door.

"Bye."

-x-

When Naruto got to Sasuke's apartment he found Sasuke on the toilet, vomiting. He wanted to make a stingy remark, but couldn't. So instead he walked to the kitchen and purposely took out some cup ramen, knowing Sasuke would not be able to stand the smell, especially now. So he sat down at the table and started to eat, still feeling his heart ache.

Some minutes later Sasuke came shuffling into the kitchen, to run out just as fast after smelling the ramen.

Naruto grinned, he knew it wasn't the right way to start this, but he just could not _not_ do it. After finishing his ramen he walked to the bedroom. Sasuke laid spread over the bed, a hand covering his eyes.

"Finished puking?" Naruto asked, not with a very soft voice.

Sasuke groaned. "Please not so loud."

"You weren't so soft last night either." Naruto turned and went back to the kitchen. Walking around the kitchen table a few times, he decided to sit down on the hard wooden chair.

Somewhat later Sasuke came shuffling into the kitchen again. His eyes were just slits and he looked like a mess.

"What did you mean by that and more importantly why are you so stingy?" Sasuke asked concerned. He didn't had a good feeling about this.

Naruto knew that if Sasuke had been sober, he would have figured this out a long time ago. But obviously seeing he was not, Naruto decided to help him.

"Don't you remember the fun you had last night?"

Sasuke frowned. "Naruto, why don't you just tell me what happened?"

"If you had talked to me sooner, this wouldn't have happened and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Sasuke, poor Sasuke. His brain just couldn't process al this information. He needed to begin at the start. He had gone to visit the gravestone, alone, and felt bad about being rude to Naruto, while he had only wanted to help.

He had met Kiba who had somehow talked him into coming to this bar. How could Kiba have talked him into _that_? Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted to remember. He had drunk, a lot… _too much_. He didn't remember much after that. But that look on Naruto's face. This couldn't be good.

"You know what, come to me when you are sober, it makes talking a lot easier." At that Naruto left the apartment to go to his own place.

Sasuke had to blink a few times to catch up to notice Naruto had gone. "Huh?"

-x-X-x-

Later that day Sasuke entered Naruto's apartment. He still had dark rings under his eyes, but they were definitely less visible than before, his headache hadn't gone away completely either but enough for him to understand and vaguely remember what had happened.

He walked to the kitchen first, Naruto wasn't there. Bathroom... no. Bedroom... yes.

Sasuke walked to the bed and looked down at Naruto as he lay sleeping on the bed on his stomach, before he sat down on the other side of the bed, looking out of the window. He put his head in his hands. Should he wake Naruto or let him sleep? He probably hadn't slept much last night.

Sasuke heard Naruto take a deep breath and turn onto his back, laying spread out on the bed. Sasuke was still in his small dilemma about waking Naruto up or not, when he didn't need to think about it anymore; Naruto had woken up, but Sasuke had not yet noticed.

Naruto looked at Sasuke's back and saw him with his head in his hands. Naruto swallowed. "Sasuke?" he asked softly.

Sasuke jumped a bit, obviously still not having noticed Naruto was awake. He turned around on the bed and looked Naruto in the eyes.

"Naruto, I… I'm so sorry. I really am." He stopped, apologizing wasn't his strongest forte. He didn't know exactly how to proceed.

Naruto sat up on the bed and silence fell.

After a while Sasuke tried again. "I don't know where to start. The fact that I said you couldn't come, that I went to a bar with Kiba, that I got drunk and then… I… I did the worst…" His hand groped for Naruto's and he was a bit surprised Naruto didn't retreat when he found it. "I don't know what came over me… I-"

"Sasuke, I understand you were upset last night and I shouldn't have pushed you about taking me with you. I was wrong there, I should have just let you go the first time you said you didn't want me there. I don't really care about the bar and the drinking, I trust you to be old enough to deal with such things." Naruto took a deep breath, "But what you said to _me_? I just… I can't…," Naruto averted from Sasuke, though his hand was still under the ravens.

"I know, Naruto, believe me when I say this is _absolutely_ the thing I regret most in my entire live."

"That says something," Naruto said sarcastically, "just add it to the rest of your most-regretted-things-in-my-live-list."

That Sasuke was not amused by this comment was an understatement.

"It's not like I have a meters long list where I just add things to," he said angry. He just couldn't help it, he really regretted doing this to Naruto, but he didn't have to go about it like this.

"Well it certainly does look like it!"

"Should I walk around apologizing to every villager I see every minute of the day?"

"It would be a start!" Naruto stood up and walked to the door. "It would have certainly made my convincing of Tsunade to let you stay a hell of a lot easier. And it wouldn't have hurt your acceptance to the villagers either!" Naruto's ears now lay flat on his head.

"Look who's talking?" It didn't happen a lot to Sasuke, actually it was almost nonexistent, but the words had left his mouth before he could stop himself from saying it. And perhaps there was a truth in it.

But before Sasuke could either apologize or make things worse, Naruto had slammed the door close, leaving Sasuke alone on the bed; again.

"Chikushou." He stood up and quickly ran to follow Naruto, but the blond was long gone.

-x-X-x-

Sasuke came home that evening, not feeling good at all. He hadn't been able to find Naruto anywhere. His leftover of a hangover didn't help much either. He had to lie down. He would go looking again for Naruto in a couple of hours.

But it would not come that far, for Sasuke did not wake until the next morning.

-oXo-


	27. Chapter 27: 11th of September

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

I couldn't reply to those that reviewed, so I want to thank you for that in this way. You are the best ^^

-oXo-

**Chapter 27: 11****th**** of September**

Naruto opened his eyes as rain started leaking from above him, right onto the crown of his head. He had wandered around the village for a while yesterday and had considered going to Iruka, but knew that would be the first place Sasuke would go and look for him. That had ruled out some other places to go to as well. Eventually he had gone to the place in the forest where he had fought Gaara so many years ago.

He shook his head, not only to get the rain water from his hair. He had told Sakura he would tell Sasuke the truth, but it had also meant he would sort of forgive him; perhaps not immediately and certainly not without letting Sasuke promise him some things. But it definitely hadn't been his purpose to get into a fight and run away.

On the other hand, he had been away for a whole night and had been on the same spot for over twelve hours and Sasuke still hadn't found him. And now he was really starting to get hungry. He hadn't eaten anything since the afternoon the other day.

This left him two choices. He could go back to the village, have something to eat and probably have Sasuke find him. _Or_ he could stay here, getting hungrier by the minute and finally have Sasuke find him.

The first option sounded so much better in so many ways, but his head told him otherwise. He secretly hoped Sasuke was trying to find him. That he was getting into a panic by now because he couldn't. Have him look around some more, perhaps even asking Kakashi and Sakura to help him in a desperate last resort. And finally right then when he is starting to think that perhaps this is for the best, because whatever made him deserve to be with Naruto, let Sasuke find him. Yes, that definitely sounded good; he could wait for that.

Naruto leaped to another branch where no leaks were and stared at a squirrel trying to find a good hiding place for his acorn. He was digging a small hole in the ground near a tree. Something like a rusted metal plate with an inscription Naruto couldn't really read marked the place he was digging.

Naruto's stomach grumbled loudly and the squirrel was gone.

This was going to be a long day, Naruto thought. He sighed.

-x-X-x-

Meanwhile Sasuke had woken up and had found himself in some sort of a panic state when he had noticed the time. He still thought it was better to take a shower before he quickly left the house, for if he did find Naruto it might be better if he at least looked sober and smelled nice instead of alcohol.

A few hours later he had run around about everywhere in the village: Naruto's place, Ichiraku ramen, Iruka's place, the Hokage monument, his own place again, training ground, Hokage tower and everywhere else in the village. But he still hadn't found the blond.

He had finally had no other option then to go to Kakashi's place to look. He had delayed it for the last (more accurately second to last) because he couldn't even begin to imagine what Kakashi would say if he found out what they had been fighting about.

"Maa, maa, Sasuke, you lost your counterpart?"

Sasuke just gave Kakashi a very, _very_ cold stare. "Have you seen Naruto or not?" he repeated.

"Not having a fight, have you?" But Kakashi didn't need to say more at the look of Sasuke's face. "Oh. No, I haven't seen him."

At that Sasuke turned around and hastily made himself scarce before Kakashi could ask or say more. Sasuke didn't need Kakashi to tell him he had been wrong, he was perfectly capable of doing that himself.

As of now, he had one last place to check: Sakura's place. He knew Sakura wouldn't let him go as easily as Kakashi. She would pry him until he would admit they'd had a fight and there would be even more annoyance before she found out the reason. Taking a deep breath he rang the bell and took a step back.

Sakura's mother was the one to open the door.

"Hello Uchiha-kun, how nice of you to come by, but I'm afraid to say that Sakura had another nightshift last night and is sleeping right now. Shall I leave a message?"

Sasuke mulled this over for a second, before answering. Could it be Sakura had let an angry and upset Naruto in at night, turning home from her shift and had let him into her room without telling her parents? Sasuke could think of a few very good reasons why she would not have mentioned this to her mother and he could very well imagine her doing such a thing for Naruto.

Did he dare ask her mother about Naruto? No, Sakura would definitely kill him for it.

"If it isn't too much trouble, could I still see her? It's very important."

Sakura's mother was silent for a moment, but decided Sasuke knew Sakura well enough not to wake her for something stupid and unimportant. So she opened the door some more to let him in.

"You know where her room is."

"Thank you, Haruno-san."

Sasuke hastily climbed the stairs to find Sakura's room. He knocked once. Upon hearing nothing, he just entered and looked around the room. Sakura grumpily turned around in bed.

"Mom, I told you I had a night shift."

"Have you seen Naruto?" Sasuke asked, panic now rising within him. If Naruto wasn't here, where could he be? He hadn't left the village, had he?

Sakura suddenly was aware what this might be about.

"Didn't you guys make things up?" she asked.

"No, we-", Sasuke turned around, looking at her. "How do you know we had a fight?"

Sakura looked at the ground before she looked up to Sasuke again, saying softly, though not fully succeeding in keeping the anger out of her voice, "When you finished your fight, Naruto came talking things out to me in the middle of the night."

Sasuke paled, he didn't really remember everything he had said to Naruto, just some small parts. It must have been worse than he had thought. A new wave of guilt hit him and he backed to the wall and let himself slide to the ground, his head falling into his hands.

Sakura actually felt sorry for him, she had never seen Sasuke in such a way and immediately knew he regretted all of it. Beside he wasn't fully to blame. She stood up from the bed and sat beside him against the wall and hugged him.

After a while Sasuke spoke, sorrow clearly lining his voice. "I… I can't even remember what I said to him, but if he had to come to you, it might be best if I don't. I just want to find him and tell him how sorry I am. I looked everywhere, but I can't find him."

At that Sakura stopped patting his back. "You can't find him anywhere?"

"At least not inside the village." Sasuke looked up to Sakura.

"Did you check the Hokage monu-"

"Yes, everything inside the village."

Sakura put a hand to her chin, thinking. "Perhaps…"

Sasuke looked at her almost desperately.

"Perhaps he is in the forest where he fought Gaara. I've seen him there before when I returned from a mission. He said it reminded him of the first time he had actually met someone with the same pain and loneliness as he had and how lucky he was to have friends."

Sasuke shot up at that. "Sorry to have woken you up," he said as he walked to the door, but stopped before opening it. "And I'm sorry for the-" he looked around at her and she nodded.

"Just go and find him," she said with a small smile.

At those words he gave her a small smile back and headed out of the room.

_Those boys_, Sakura thought as she stood up to get back to bed.

-x-X-x-

Naruto still had the nice image of Sasuke finding him in his head, but it had turned into a much less desirable dream. He just couldn't take it anymore. He felt like he could attack the still-lingering-around squirrel any moment now. He was just too hungry.

Deciding it was best to leave before he _really would_ attack the innocent squirrel, Naruto stood up and jumped down from the high tree branch to land not too far from the squirrel, which was once again in a state of alarm because of him.

He calmly strolled down the forest, getting wet as he went back to the village.

It definitely had sounded so much better in his head, when he had come here thinking Sasuke would find him. But it was partly his own fault that he even was here. Sasuke had tried his best to apologize and Naruto knew such things were hard for the raven, not being able to find the right words. And he had just insulted him about his other wrong doings; even though he had said a long time ago he had forgiven Sasuke for it and had even understood him for doing those things in the first place.

Stupid, was the one word that came to mind, he had been stupid. Yes, he'd had the right to be angry at Sasuke for what he had said last night, but it had nothing to do with Sasuke's past.

Being completely soaked by now, he suddenly heard a faint voice calling. His ears perked up, trying to hear what the voice was calling for. He turned into the direction of the voice. It was a male voice.

Naruto walked to where the voice had come from, but it stopped calling. The voice had sounded desperate and Naruto began to run to it. As he came closer he could hear the sound of a stream becoming louder and louder. He ran into a clearing and was knocked over by a dark shadow.

Lying on the muddy ground he looked up to see Sasuke spread on top of him.

"Sasuke?"

"Naruto?" they asked at the same time.

"I heard a voice calling from over here, was that you?" Naruto asked.

"No, I thought it might be you."

They looked at each other when the third voice announced itself again, but now very clearly coming from the cliff above the stream.

"Help!"

Sasuke and Naruto stood up and hurried to the side of the cliff, looking down. A man from around their age was hanging onto a rope, which had belonged to a rope bridge that had obviously been there not so long ago. He was slowly sliding down as the rope was slippery from all the rain, coming to the end of the line. The man looked up and his deep purple eyes locked with theirs.

"Please, help me!"

"We're coming, hold on!" Naruto yelled back as he looked over to Sasuke. "What do we do, it's no use walking down the cliff, it's too rocky. Before we get to him it might be too late. And even if we do go down there we can't even reach him from over the side of the cliff."

The man was dangling on the rope somewhere in the middle between the two sides. They could hardly see him anymore as the storm became worse than before and rain started splattering down harder. It almost hurt on their skin.

Fortunately Sasuke had a plan in mind the moment he had seen the man dangling.

"You jump down and make as many clones as possible, so you can catch him if he does fall. I will try to walk to him via the rope and try to hoist him up."

Naruto nodded and jumped down the cliff, while making clones as he soared down; it was at least half a kilometre down.

Sasuke couldn't see Naruto anymore, but thought he would have arrived down on the water by now, decided it was safe for him to walk down the rope. He practically ran over the rope to above the place he had seen the man. Balancing on the cord he looked down and groped for the rope the man hung onto, to pull it up.

Meanwhile Naruto had activated his sage-mode to sense where Sasuke and the man were. He had completely covered the stream for a good hundred meters and just to be sure some clones were also beginning to climb up the cliff sides. With such a wind and rain you never knew where someone could be blown away to.

He could feel Sasuke stop running and standing still on the rope. He was probably trying to pull it up, when he heard the voice of the man again.

"Aargh! I can't hold it much longer."

It wouldn't be wise to tell the man to just let go. His fall would still be around four to five hundred meters down and he could theoretically still fall outside of Naruto's range or hit the cliff. That was why Sasuke now began to climb down the rope himself to the man. He reached the man and held out his hand.

"Take it!" he yelled over the raging sound of the water all around. The man looked down nervously and then back up to Sasuke and shook his head.

"It will be all right, if we fall we will be caught by my friend down on the water."

The man looked down once more, probably trying to see this friend, but unable to, for he couldn't see more than three meters in front of him, and looked back up.

Still not completely convinced he nonetheless let go of one hand and tried to grasp Sasuke's. In doing so he made the rope swing even more than it already did and slipped down again.

This time he couldn't hold on to it and Sasuke hurriedly let go as he could see the man beginning to fall. In midair Sasuke grasped the man and tried to protect him from anything they might fall onto and try to steer them both towards Naruto.

Lucky for them both Naruto felt them fall and had already covered the spot they would land. Catching them made him and his clones almost fall into the water by the pure force of the fall; big waves in the water removed the energy from their fall away. As he held Sasuke and the man up and the rest of his clones disappeared, he saw Sasuke had protected the man very well. The man clung to Sasuke like his life depended on it; it actually had.

Naruto turned around and Sasuke slowly pried the man lose and helped him onto Naruto's back. When he knew the man was secure Naruto jumped up the cliff using his frog-fu to help him up. Behind him Sasuke was copying Naruto's moves as much as possible to get on top of the cliff more or less the same way as the blond.

Arriving on top Naruto directly went to the tree's to find a spot in the forest that was less wet than the rest of the area. He sensed Sasuke following him and finally came to a stop. Naruto let the man slowly slide down from his back till he sat on the ground, holding his ankle.

"I think I sprained my ankle, but it could have been worse. Thank you very much for saving me." He looked up to the both of them and gave a small bow.

Sasuke just 'Hn-ed' and Naruto gave a big grin.

"Do you want us to take you to Konoha to the hospital? I'm afraid we are not really medics, so we can't help you now."

"If that wouldn't be too much trouble, I would really appreciate it."

"No, problem, we're just heading there anyway, ne Sasuke?"

Sasuke gave an almost invisible nod and turned into the direction of Konoha. "Let's go."

Naruto let the man get onto his back again and started running after Sasuke.

"My name is Hikato Keita. Nice to meet you…"

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto beamed. Keita smiled. "And this teme is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Oh."

As they ran through the rain, Naruto behind Sasuke, Keita began to tell how he got to the bridge and first had thought better of it than to walk over it. But he had felt a sudden urge to do it anyway.

He told Naruto how he sometimes got sudden urges and followed them. Not always something good came from it immediately, but in the end it did.

"So though it does not look really good now, it probably will in a couple of hours or days."

Naruto just nodded, he didn't really know what to say. Besides he was kind of distracted by Sasuke as he glanced back at Naruto every now and then.

Finally arriving at the hospital they delivered the man to the right hospital room for his examination and walked back to the exit together.

As they walked in the long empty and rather hospital-dull corridor they passed Sakura. She said she hadn't been able to sleep anymore even though she'd had a nightshift the day before. While saying this she gave Sasuke a stare.

"I'm glad you made things up," she said.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, who just gave a small smile.

"Yeah."

Sakura looked like she wanted to say something as her mouth went open but decided against it and closed it again. Finally she just said goodbye and left.

Naruto shivered as he began walking again. "It's cold."

They quickly and quietly walked back to Sasuke's apartment, not even saying a single word against each other until Sasuke was searching for the house key and Naruto sneezed a couple of times really loud.

"You should get a warm shower. It looks like you got a cold."

Naruto sniffled and glared a bit at Sasuke. "Wonder however that happened," he mumbled.

Sasuke finally opened the door, let Naruto in, pulled out his sandals and went dripping to the shower, making sure Naruto followed him. As they entered the bathroom, Sasuke thought it better to take separate showers instead of taking a bath together; he wasn't sure how Naruto still felt about him so he sat down on the closed toilet lit.

Naruto just stood there shivering and watching Sasuke. Carefully Sasuke decided it was time for him to speak up first, beginning slowly with the conversation he first asked, "How long have you been out in the rain?"

Naruto looked up a bit angry, though the effect was undone by his shivering and sniffing. His soaked hair, the dripping of water from his ears and the drop hanging on his nose didn't really help either.

"Since I left."

"Why don't you pull off your wet clothes and take a warm shower?" Sasuke felt himself not being able to keep up his own shivering anymore; it just was so damn cold. So he started shivering himself.

"Why don't you go first?"

"You've been out there longer, you need it the most."

"I can handle it." Naruto sneezed loudly again. Silence fell.

Naruto could be very headstrong and right now he had told himself he wouldn't say anything to Sasuke. Sasuke would have to do this himself.

Sasuke really wanted to say something but did not really know what. Especially the silence in the room, no, the silence of Naruto was feeling unnatural to him. It just made it clear to him he should be the first one to speak.

"I'm really sorry," it came directly from the heart and perhaps that was the reason why Naruto looked a bit bewildered at first. That or he just hadn't expected Sasuke to say anything, Sasuke thought.

"I know, but it still…" Naruto looked down at his feet, trying to find the right words. "It still hurt. It really hurt."

"I…" Sasuke didn't really know how to answer this. "I don't know how to make this up to you. I'm really sorry, and I can keep saying this, but I know it won't really make things better." And then Sasuke did something he never did: he hung his head and a single tear crossed his cheek.

"You don't need to say anything anymore." Naruto walked forward to Sasuke and hugged him and Sasuke slowly hugged him back. "That was all I needed to know… or see."

Holding each other, shivering, soaking wet, Sasuke said, "I should tell you more often, don't I?"

"It wouldn't hurt." Naruto finally broke the moment by sneezing jet again.

"Come on, let's take a bath together."

Naruto nodded. "And after that we need to talk. I think we both have issues we want to talk about."

Sasuke looked into Naruto's dark blue eyes and nodded.

-x-

The bath had been filled and Naruto and Sasuke were sitting opposite of each other. After warming up Naruto decided he wanted the talk rather sooner, than later.

"Do you remember what you said last night?"

Sasuke looked up to Naruto. "Not really, bits and pieces. It's a bit hazy."

Naruto nodded and looked down, played with the water. "You said you didn't want to be with me anymore."

"What?" Sasuke asked perplexed.

Naruto began to laugh. "That was my exact reaction too."

"I would never say that. You know that I love you."

"I do, but last night, things were a bit different."

"Oh." Sasuke let his head hang.

After a moment Sasuke put his fears aside and decided to ask Naruto. "What happened then?"

Naruto looked up from the water to look in Sasuke's sad eyes. "You said you didn't want to be with me anymore, because I was a monster and couldn't give you an heir."

Sasuke had expected the answer to be bad, but this? "I... What? No, I-" he didn't knew what to say to that.

"I guess you just said things that I feared as well. Except for the heir part," Naruto mumbled the last sentence.

Sasuke looked to Naruto puzzled.

"You know. That the fox might take me over and... and that I might become a real monster."

Sasuke took a few breaths. Yes, in a way they both feared it. He slid over to Naruto and sat beside him.

"We both know that's over, right?"

"Yes, it's just that it is all so fresh and..." Naruto looked up to Sasuke and his ears dropped, "and well, the first seal wasn't perfect either."

"I think that fear will always be there anyway, don't you think so?" Naruto blinked. "That's normal, but it doesn't mean that you have to be afraid of it happening."

Naruto smiled. "So you don't think I'm a monster?" he asked still with his smile on his face, but the sad looking eyes spoke volumes.

"No! I don't know why I would ever say that." Sasuke looked down to Naruto. "Perhaps you're looking a bit different than other people, but I like that. You're different and you're all mine." Sasuke hugged Naruto. "Not many people can say they have a boyfriend with soft fluffy ears and tail to match." Sasuke grinned.

Naruto couldn't see the grin since Sasuke's chin was resting on his head. "Mo~, Sasuke."

Silence fell once more and the water began to slowly cool down. Right before Sasuke made a move to get out Naruto wanted to know one more thing.

"Do you blame Kyuubi for the death of your clan?"

Sasuke was silent for a moment and considered this.

"Yeah, I think so." Naruto looked up to him. "But I think I blame a lot of people for it. Madara, especially him, the elders, Kyuubi, Itachi and even the Uchiha's themselves."

"And me? It was because of me being born that the fox could get loose in the first place."

Sasuke was thinking this over. "Yeah, I guess I blame you too."

Naruto pouted at Sasuke as the corners of Sasuke's mouth slowly curled up. "Teme."

"Dobe."

-oXo-

A/N: Aaah, one last chapter to go… It's more of an epilogue kind of chapter.


	28. Chapter 28: 10th of October

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine

Thanks for following this story till the last chapter... and make sure you read the A/N at the end :)

-oXo-

**Chapter 28 (Epilogue): 10****th**** of October**

Naruto was hopping back and forth between Kakashi and Sakura.

"Come on, why won't you tell me?"

"We already told you it would ruin the surprise."

Naruto grumbled a bit. "At least we're moving away from the festival." His ears dropped.

Naruto had never really liked the festival. Though he had never really been hurt to the point he'd needed to go to the hospital. Besides, the glares, stares, whispers and name-calling of the villagers had been considerably less the last few years.

Still he didn't think it was a good thing for him to appear now, especially not with the fox ears and tail going on. He knew some villagers were aware about it, since he tried to walk around like himself every once in a while. So even with a Henge he still didn't feel like going there.

Suddenly his ears went up again. "Tell me?"

"No, Naruto."

Naruto pouted as they walked on. Every now and then Naruto asked them to tell him, but it became lesser in the next couple of minutes. After a while of walking further away and even walking out of the gates of Konoha they met with Sasuke.

Naruto jumped up his back, chanting 'Tell me, tell me, tell me,' which Sasuke clearly was not amused about. But Sasuke just walked on, while Naruto tried to hold on to his back.

Eventually he thought it was no more fun, since Sasuke didn't let notice he was annoyed, so Naruto let go and walked on by himself.

Sometime later Naruto walked into Sasuke, when he made a sudden stop in front of Naruto. He rubbed his nose and looked around, trying to understand why Sasuke had stopped.

"What is it?"

Sasuke turned around to watch Naruto, as Sakura and Kakashi came to stand next to the raven.

Naruto still couldn't find what was so important about this spot; he couldn't hear anybody else besides them so that ruled out a 'Surprise' yell. There were just some trees and grass.

"Put this on."

Naruto looked over to Sasuke who was holding a blindfold. He stared at it for a while and then grasped it. One last glance over to his team and then everything was covered in darkness.

He knew why they wanted him to put on a blindfold. This way he wouldn't know where they were heading, as he couldn't see and he didn't had his fox ears long enough to know the sounds from all the places and things yet. This was the perfect way for them to lead him somewhere without him knowing or needing to hold him or directing him personally.

Sakura assured the blindfold was put on correctly, covering his eyes and normal ears. His fox ears twitched on top, trying to hear every sound.

"Follow me," was all the warning he got as Sasuke ran away. Naruto followed. Of course as a ninja he had trained to be able to fight and orientate in the dark or without eyesight.

Naruto followed Sasuke's familiar sounds over the still familiar terrain, but within seconds he lost his coordination.

As team 7 had been practising their blindfold fighting, as they did occasionally, a few weeks ago Naruto had soon noticed that having fox ears came in quite handy. However two balance systems were not.

As soon as his eyes were covered he lost his orientation. He couldn't tell if he was still standing in the same spot as before or if he had taken a few steps. Only his hearing made him able to tell him if he had taken a right or left turn. It was his only way to pinpoint his location and it was hard at first but soon it became easier. Still it made him quite dizzy as soon as he uncovered his eyes.

Tsunade had told him that having two balance systems could work in one's advantage, by working together and giving him a perfect sense of orientation and sense of direction. As it was for him he was unlucky in this case as his systems worked against each other all the time. He could only fairly easy adjust his systems while walking or running during the day or during the night, but as soon as something unexpected happened he would get dizzy. For instance hearing very loud noises or turning around to quick was enough to overload his balance systems.

Right now only because he was focussing on Sasuke, he was able to walk straight and not fall over because of imbalance.

Naruto heard Sakura come running next to him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Is this going to take long?"

"Depends on Sasuke's tempo. At the tempo we have now, it won't take much longer than an hour."

"Nice."

Running on for almost another hour Naruto began to get annoyed of the blindfold and feeling dizzy, he began to walk slower. Until he just stopped; bending forward to lean his hands on his knees.

"I can't go on anymore," he said as he felt himself sway. A strong hand held him steady.

"You better sit down for a while. If you feel fine again we just need to walk a bit further," Kakashi said as he helped Naruto sit on the ground.

"Okay, I can do that." Naruto grinned.

As he sat still and trying to focus on the steady ground Naruto heard a few birds and the wind blow through the grass. He still couldn't figure out where they were. He was becoming more and more curious, but he wouldn't ask. He wouldn't get an answer anyway.

After ten minutes he tried to stand up again, but halfway he decided against it and sat down again.

"Can't I pull off the blindfold?" he tried.

"No," Sasuke answered.

Naruto pouted. "Hmpf."

Another five minutes passed as Naruto stood up again and walked over to Sakura.

"You okay to go?" she asked.

"As good as."

Sakura stood up, as the rest did so too, and ran away in the right direction. Naruto again followed after her and Sasuke as Kakashi made the tail of their line.

Finally after clearing the forestry landscape and entering more open land they halted as Sasuke told Naruto they were there. He walked up to Naruto and took his arm and guided him into a small house or cottage Naruto assumed, as it sounded as if it was made out of wood. They walked through a door and came to a small room and went further into an even smaller room.

Then Sasuke halted Naruto again and Naruto could hear something being moved, something heavy. Sakura pushed him gently to make him walk forward. As Naruto walked through what he presumed to be an opening, he almost tripped over a threshold, or perhaps it had been a crack in the floor, he didn't know.

"Moo, can't I take of the blindfold?" he asked again, annoyed. He gave a growl.

"You shouldn't whine Naruto, they're doing it for you."

That voice, could it be?

"Gaara?" Naruto asked as Sakura took of his blindfold and his question was answered.

In front of him stood no other than the Kazekage himself. Naruto walked forward and gave Gaara a hand. "Gaara! Good to see you," he smiled. He hadn't seen Gaara in quite a while, since he hadn't left the village much at all and Gaara being busy doing his job.

"You too," Gaara said a bit brusque. He was silent for a moment and then said, "Happy birthday." The corners of his mouth curled up a bit.

"Thanks," Naruto smiled some more and his left hand went behind his head, his eyes squeezed into thin lines.

Gaara looked Naruto over and stared at the ears for a second before turning to Sasuke. He stared at him and then to Kakashi and Sakura. After that he looked back to Naruto, into his big, bright blue eyes.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to sit for a while," Naruto said as he went to sit on a chair behind a table that stood in the middle of the room.

"Why did I have to wear a blindfold all the way here?" he asked a bit sceptic as the others came to sit down as well.

"Because it was a birthday surprise and we didn't want you to know and whine all the way over here," Sakura explained.

A sand ninja gave them some tea.

Naruto huffed, "So I have to get dizzy only for that?"

"Yes," Sakura smiled.

"Hmpf."

Kakashi turned to look to Naruto as he put down his tea. "Gaara obviously couldn't come to the party tonight so we thought it would be nice to arrange it like this."

"But you were surprised?" Gaara asked timidly.

Naruto looked over to Gaara and again a big smile appeared on his face. "Of course, I certainly hadn't expected this."

"Good, because it's not easy to leave the village just for a birthday," Gaara said and made sure with his look that Naruto understood how hard it had been to leave his village (and country).

"Well, that's very kind of you, Kazekage," he answered, grinning and sweeping his tail. Gaara just stared back across the table.

Not long after they had starting talking, the door suddenly opened and another few ninja's entered. Temari, Kankurou and Shikamaru entered the room.

"Sure took you guys long enough," Kankurou said to the Konoha ninja's as he pulled a chair back to sit on it. "We left after the opening of the festival and still almost beat you here."

"They blindfolded me." Naruto then turned to Sasuke and Sakura, "You see, you shouldn't have blindfolded me."

"Why not, we weren't racing?" Sakura said calmly.

"Meh." Naruto folded his arms. "You don't have two balance systems," he mumbled toward the wall, turning away from the others.

"Ah, mendoukusai!" Shikamaru walked over to Sakura. "Ino made me promise to tell you 'thanks'." Without waiting for the answer he sat down opposite of her, between Kakashi and Kankurou.

Temari made a move to sit down at the head of the table. "What was that about?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

"Probably too bothersome, am I right?"

Shikamaru stared at her and then leant back and closed his eyes. "Correct."

Temari lent back as well, but kept staring at Shikamaru.

Kankurou moved his eyes between them and then fumbled in his dark clothing, revealing a letter.

"From the Hokage," he said as he gave it to Gaara, who gave a small nod and put it in his own vest.

"We still got an hour, Kazekage," a ninja told Gaara.

Sometime later Naruto was happily chatting with Gaara (That means Gaara was mostly listening) along with Sakura and Kankurou. Sasuke, Kakashi Shikamaru and Temari were rather quiet.

The hour was over before they knew it.

"Kazekage-sama-"

"I know."

Gaara looked up to Naruto as he stood from his chair.

"It was nice seeing you again. You should visit more often."

"I will."

"Have a nice birthday," Temari said to him as she turned to the door.

"Thanks, bye."

When the Kazekage had left with his escorts, Naruto looked around the room until his eyes fell on Sasuke and Kakashi.

"Thanks for the surprise," he smiled.

They stood up as well and with the five of them, Shikamaru coming with them, they left the rather interesting building. It seemed very small on the outside, but was quite big on the inside.

"Why did you come all the way here, to just go back again? Temari-san and Kankurou-san could have managed themselves," Sakura asked Shikamaru. He shrugged. Sakura smiled as she thought she knew why he had done so, even if it was bothersome.

"What are we going to do next? The festival-parade isn't over yet, is it?" Naruto asked.

"No, still goes on for a couple of hours, till around 16:00 h."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru and then turned his head to Sasuke. "We can make a small detour, right?"

Sasuke glanced at him, but didn't answer.

"We can visit Haku's and Zabuza's grave?" Sakura asked, catching onto Naruto's intension.

"Yes, let's do that."

"Fine," Sasuke answered and they stopped to turn direction.

Kakashi and Shikamaru stopped as well.

"We'll go back to Konoha. See you later at the party. Don't be late."

"We better tell _you_ that, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi smirked, though it couldn't really be seen.

"Later," Shikamaru said and he and Kakashi took off.

"It's been such a long time since we were there."

"It sure has," Sakura said.

Sasuke was just silent.

-x-

"Don't get foxy with me, dobe."

Naruto looked at him a bit hurt. "Hm." Naruto pouted. "I think I can say I already am…" He took another sip of his juice.

"That's not what I meant."

"He's got a point there, Sasuke."

"Hn."

"I just got a déjà vu, but slightly different," Sakura said as she rubbed her chin.

"Talking about foxes," Kiba suddenly joined the conversation.

It was eight in the evening and everyone was present on Naruto's birthday party; all the rookie nine and their senseis, team 9, Iruka and even Konohamaru and his team.

"That fox in the parade looked more like a squid, right Ino?"

"Hmm, I wouldn't say squid, but you're right that it definitely wasn't a fox."

"There was a parade with a fox?" Naruto asked seriously curious.

"Yes, every year it's made by someone else. This year it was a squid with nine tails."

"It certainly wasn't a squid, Kiba. Why you ask? Because of the right shape of the nozzle and the colour of the ears. The fact that the sculpture looked like it had almost no body and only tails was a choice of the artist. But the fact remains that it had no features of a squid whatsoever."

Kiba stared at Shino for a moment. "Whatever."

"But it did look like a big head with mostly only tails. The tails were just too big. I even suspect there were more than nine." Ino told Shino. He stayed silent.

Kiba snickered. "Not even Kyuubi can walk around with so many tails sticking out of his butt."

Naruto snorted at that. "Ha, imagine that," he said softly.

"Well you can consider yourself lucky you still only got one tai-"

Naruto jumped to Kiba and clasped his hands over his mouth. "Don't jinx it! You already did with the ears." His ears dropped while he looked with angry, squinted eyes at Kiba.

"I did? When?" Kiba asked as he pried Naruto's hands from his mouth.

"At Sasuke's birthday party. Don't you remember?" Ino asked. "Sorry, stupid question," she added.

"What? I-" Kiba tried to shove Naruto off of him.

"You were drunk Kiba-kun," Hinata said quietly, but very clear, making Kiba fall silent.

"Aha."

Naruto let go off Kiba. "Again."

Kiba looked up to Naruto. "Ha, I would like to see how you handle your alcohol."

"You're not even allowed to drink yet!"

"I was even able to make the Uchiha drink. You think I won't be able to make you? I bet you are a happier drunk than emo Sasuke."

People turned over to look at Sasuke, astonished. Naruto crossed his arms and shook his head.

Sakura had thought this conversation had taken a wrong turn and was about to change the subject after giving Sasuke a quick glance. He looked unharmed, though a little bit on edge. She opened her mouth.

"Not a chance," Naruto boosted.

Kiba grinned. "I think I just heard a bet there."

"You are already into two of the three vices of shinobi. All that is left are the woman." Naruto stared at Kiba.

"What are you talking about?"

"You never learned?"

Kiba just stared back.

"The three vices of shinobi. What is that you say? The three things that are-" Shino began but he was interrupted by Tsunade.

"I will bet you."

"Eh? Baa-chan?"

"Deal!" Kiba immediately took his chance. "You are _so_ going to lose."

"Then you have never bet against Naruto."

"Why should I? This is the first time I think I have a good enough reason to do it. I will not lose."

"Sure, brat, dream on."

And on and on they went. Naruto looked a bit taken aback. If Tsunade had bet _for_ him, that couldn't mean much good would come from it. She _was_ called the Legendary Sucker after all.

So he decided to walk away, like some other people. Sakura tried to reason with Tsunade, but wouldn't make a chance.

-x-

An hour later Naruto walked into Sasuke in the hallway. Suddenly Naruto turned to Sasuke and grasped him at the shoulders. "I don't want nine tails. One is more than enough."

Sasuke looked a bit taken aback, but recovered fast. "You don't believe dogface, right?"

"Hnn." Naruto let go of Sasuke. "You're right. He was just drunk and lucky last time."

Sasuke just wanted to say something to comfort Naruto when Yamato came hurrying by to the bathroom. Naruto and Sasuke just watched with raised eyebrows as Iruka followed with the same speed and then a slowly strolling Kakashi.

"What is this all about?" Naruto asked curious, but Kakashi just shrugged and followed the others into the bedroom which led to the bathroom and closed the door.

"I think they are either drunk or they are going to search the room."

"I think the latter," Sasuke said.

"Good luck to them," Naruto said as he nodded in agreement. "And otherwise I don't even want to think what else they're about to do." He turned around and walked back into the living room.

In the mean time Sasuke stared at the door to their bedroom, trying to decide to enter or not. If they were searching the room, they would not be able to find anything important anyway, but it would be nice to make them uncomfortable and see the look on their faces while searching. He had made his decision and entered the bedroom.

-x-

Meanwhile, Naruto was standing beside Sai, who wasn't seeing (or just ignoring) the flirtations he got from Ino.

"Wasn't she dating Chouji?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru, who was looking at Ino as well, shook his head. "It wasn't working according to what Chouji told me."

"And they're still friends, right?" Hinata asked.

"Sure, they both had enough of it. It was mutual. Besides they never had been very serious about it anyway."

"That's good," Hinata silently said.

Kiba entered the room, coming from the kitchen and walked directly to Naruto. He held out a plate with drinks to them.

"Here, get some."

"Like I'm going to drink something you offer me."

"Come on, Naruto. Look nothing is wrong with them. Take one Sai, show Naruto."

Sai took a glass with a sinister greenish colour. He drank some and nothing happened.

"See?" Kiba said.

"But we all know Sai wouldn't show anything even if it did taste awful. I'm not drinking it." He turned a bit to Shino, who was carrying some bottles of lemonade into the living room. "Hey, Shino, can I get one," he asked as he walked to Shino.

Tsunade was following him around with her eyes from the opening between the kitchen and living room. Sakura stood beside her with her head in her hand.

Naruto had returned to his spot and opened the capped bottle.

"You can take a glass of this with your bottle and mix it?"

"Go away, Kiba."

After some more pestering from Kiba and Naruto drinking the bottle in one go, saying he was full now, Kiba finally went off.

"Annoying..." Naruto grumbled.

"I'm going to tell Ino to stop flirting, unless you like it Sai?"

"Is that what one would call flirting?" Sai asked, turning with an emotionless face toward Ino. "I thought she might be ill. Are you sure that is flirting?"

"Sadly, yes," Shikamaru said as he walked towards Ino.

"So, Hinata, I heard your sister had an accident," Naruto asked as he took the bottle of lemonade Shino offered him; trying to be polite.

"Yes, N-Naruto-kun, but she is f-fine. Only a broken arm."

"Considering what happened, she is lucky," Shino said.

-x-

Meanwhile in the bedroom, Sasuke was mentally laughing his ass off at the looks Iruka and Yamato were giving him.

"What do you mean by 'he hid all the stuff'?" Iruka asked.

Sasuke shrugged.

"What do you boys do to each other at night?" Iruka was really freaking out.

If only Naruto could have seen this, Sasuke thought, but Naruto didn't had it in him to keep a straight face at these kinds of moments.

"Oh, Naruto doesn't do much. Besides it's not only at night."

"W-What?" Yamato stuttered; he was a bit tipsy, like Iruka. Kakashi probably could hold it better, or he just hadn't drunk, Sasuke didn't know, but he did know that Kakashi was on to him. However since he was having fun with this as well, he didn't spoil things.

"You know, I was just saying that Naruto is more of the... ehm... subjective type-"

"WHAT?" Iruka now hung onto Sasuke's shirt. "What do you do to him?"

"Don't worry, Naruto can handle it, he's a fast healer."

Iruka's mouth hung open. Yamato stepped forward from Sasuke's nightstand, where he and Iruka had been digging. "Does Naruto let you do that to him, willingly?"

Sasuke shrugged again and Iruka was now almost strangling him, mouth still agape. "Nooo," was the only sound that silently came from his mouth.

Sasuke grinned and looked up to Kakashi, who was ready to join Sasuke in this game. "Haven't you ever heard the screams of pain and pleasure, Iruka?"

Iruka turned to Kakashi now, looking like he didn't understand.

"Is Naruto that loud?" Yamato asked, "Can _you_ hear it?"

"Sure can; though I don't think it's Naruto doing the screaming all alone."

Iruka turned his head back to Sasuke, amazed. "What?" It seemed like it was the only thing he was able to say.

Sasuke shrugged once more.

"No, I don't believe you," Yamato protested finally.

"You don't have to; just don't come around this neighbourhood around 9 in the evening," Kakashi said.

"Or 11," Sasuke added.

"Or 2 in the morning."

Iruka's mouth was possibly opening even further, just like his eyes.

"Or -"

"Nooo, I don't want to hear anymore!" Iruka ran off to the living room.

"I just can't believe it," Yamato muttered, more to himself than to the others and he walked into the bathroom; probably by accident, being a bit too drunk.

Sasuke smiled and Kakashi laughed.

"Priceless," Sasuke said as he followed the stumbling Iruka to the living room.

"Naruto! My poor... Naruto," he wailed as he entered the room.

"Iruka-sensei, are you all-"

"What does he do to you?" Iruka went on, throwing himself into Naruto's arms, who could barely hold him up as he had thrown himself with his full weight.

"Iruka-sen-"

"Does he hurt you?"

"Who?"

"Sasuke!" he said as he breathed out.

Naruto stood there with a drunken Iruka in his arms, looking angry to Sasuke. "What did you tell him?"

"Nothing much."

"Then what did you imply?"

"Nothing much either. He just has a lot of fantasy to go around with, I guess."

Kakashi snickered.

"So often, I can't believe it."

"I think I will bring you home Iruka-sensei, you are very drunk," Naruto told Iruka with a slightly confused look.

"No, Naruto, I can't let you alone with that boy. Can't you see he's using you?"

"What?" Naruto stopped dragging Iruka to the door.

Iruka was now clinging to Naruto like his live depended on it. "I will not let you alone with him, do you hear me? The things he does with you." He was now so close that Naruto took a full breath with the alcohol stench coming from him. Naruto scrunched up his nose.

Naruto stared very angry towards Sasuke once more. "I don't think I want to know." He gripped Iruka and dragged him to the front door.

"No, don't. I will not let you alone. Yamato-san, tell him!"

But Yamato was still lost in the bathroom. Chouji and Shikamaru came walking into the hall as well, taking Iruka from Naruto.

"We will bring him home, Naruto, it's your birthday, you should stay here with the guests," Chouji said.

"Are you guys sure?" Naruto asked as he handed a still hysterical Iruka to them.

"We're sure. Besides we have an early mission tomorrow," Shikamaru explained.

"Okay, thanks for coming," Naruto waved as they left the apartment, "Bye Iruka-sensei, I will be fine!"

Naruto stormed into the room, directly to Sasuke. "Why did you do that? How can I go and visit him now? And what did you do to Yamato-taicho?" He grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt.

"Nothing, I think he's in the bathroom."

"Come on, Naruto, Iruka will probably not remember anything. It _was_ quite fun," Kakashi said.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. He huffed, crossed his arm and walked away. Immediately the next person was in his arms.

"If you don't want him anymore, you can take me."

"Ino, are you drunk as well?" Naruto was seriously beginning to wonder how all the alcohol came into the house.

"All I drunk tonight were those bottttles of l-lllemonade," she slurred.

"What?" Kiba came hurrying to her. "I told you not to drink those!"

Naruto was becoming really pissed. "Kiba?"

"Heh?" Kiba looked up innocently. He was just in the process of taking Ino away from Naruto.

"What did you do?"

Tsunade came walking to Naruto as well. "You didn't!"

"Haha, I got you there, didn't I?" Kiba grinned evilly, "You're getting old."

"You can't put alcohol in lemonade bottles!"

Naruto was stunned and he probably wasn't the only one as it had become very silent once more. Shino and Neji were putting their bottles down on the table and Guy-sensei hurriedly took a bottle from Lee's grip and hurried away with him, afraid it might be too late.

"You did what?" Naruto finally erupted.

"Yeah, I put alcohol in the lemonade bottles and had Shino bring them around so nobody would suspect. So what? At least I won the bet that way; Naruto drank a dozen of them."

Tsunade looked over to Naruto. "No, you didn't."

"What? Didn't I just tell you that-"

"But he obviously isn't drunk and we had a bet about getting him drunk."

"No, about getting him _to drink_!" Kiba protested.

"Gaki, when I make a bet, I remember what it is about!"

"Sure, you probably forgot the moment you turned away, being the old-"

"That's enough you two!" Sakura came in between. Hinata took Ino from Kiba with help from Udon, who had been standing beside her, and Tenten helped Sakura with getting Kiba and Tsunade apart. Kakashi and Kurenai finally decided to help as well.

After a battle of getting the two apart and a following battle of words about who had won, they were finally able to take them away. Soon thereafter Neji and Shino helped a still lost Yamato to get home.

Sai, Moegi and Konohamaru helped clean up, but left as well seeing it was getting late and the way Naruto's mood was in right now, they didn't wanted to interrupt.

Being alone in the house again, Naruto lay on his back in the bed.

"I'm sorry about Iruka and Yamato," Sasuke said from the door opening.

Naruto turned onto his side, his back to Sasuke.

Sasuke walked around the bed and lay down on the other side, facing Naruto once more. They just stared at each other for quite a while.

"How many of those bottles did you drink?"

"Huh?" Naruto apparently hadn't expected that. "I don't know."

"I heard from Tenten she had seen Ino and Yamato drink three and Iruka just two."

"I don't know I wasn't counting."

"Shino said you had-"

"You talked with Shino?" Naruto was quite perplexed. He didn't think he had ever seen those two talking to each other.

"I just asked him, because I was curious."

"You were curious? How many did _you_ drink?"

"I think two."

"Ow. That explains why you sai- I mean _implied_ all those things to Iruka and Yamato. I don't think you normally would have."

"I guess."

"Normally you're not that talkative on a party."

"True."

Silence fell again, but Sasuke still hadn't finished.

"Shino said you had nine."

"Nine what?" Naruto asked shocked, remembering Kiba about having nine tails.

"Nine bottles."

"Ow." Naruto relaxed once more. "You were talking about bottles."

"That's quite amazing, you know; drinking nine of those bottles and still not being drunk."

"I guess, but I only had four."

"Ow, still impressive."

Once more the dialogue died down. Sasuke was now lying on his back, watching the ceiling. He could hear Naruto was still awake as well.

"At least it's a birthday to remember, right?"

Naruto glanced sideways. "That's for sure." He smiled.

"We can make it even more memorable," Sasuke said as he moved his eyebrows up and down. He must be really drunk to do that. Naruto felt Sasuke's hands move under his shirt

"I don't know~" Naruto didn't know if he felt like doing anything anymore; especially after Iruka being so shocked this night.

Sasuke's head disappeared under the sheets and soon he felt a tongue on his stomach. This went in combination of two hands lowering his boxers.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, but he didn't do anything to stop Sasuke.

Sasuke's head came above the covers again, with a big grin on his face.

"To make it more memorable I will give you my present." Naruto's eyebrows rose. "You can top this one time."

The eyebrows rose even further. "Are you sure?" Naruto asked as Sasuke had disappeared once more. Sasuke must be really drunk. Naruto smiled.

"I take that as a yes."

The end.

-oXo-

A/N: And with that, the end of this story is here… hope you liked it, even though the last chapter wasn't really an ending (or so I thought) it's hard to write a good ending. That's probably also because I was already writing the sequel when I wasn't even finished with this story.

About the sequel: it's called Kodomotachi. It takes place 2 years after Byouki as Naruto has finally adapted to his new appearance, like almost everyone else. However this doesn't mean his life becomes all boring. Far from it; he gets his own genin team. And Sasuke is confronted with his wish to restore his clan.

But before I'll post the sequel (because it's not finished yet and I have this tendency to not always work in a linear order when writing… but I'll send the first chapter sometime before the end of this month) I'll send a oneshot next week about 'the kiss', the one that was mentioned in chapter 26 ^^

I hope you'll read the oneshot and the sequel as well :)


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